Republicans enjoy producing performance art. Typically expensive performance art. Typically expensive performance art that costs taxpayers a whole lot of money. And like good Republican governors Greg Abbott of Texas and Ron DeSantis of Florida, former Arizona Governor Doug Ducey has stuck taxpayers with a $200 million bill for his anti-migrant installation piece: miles of empty shipping containers placed in a line–gaps and all– some miles from the southern border.
The Arizona Republic reports that Democratic Governor Katie Hobbs will use money from the state’s $300 million Border Security Fund to dismantle and dispose of the empty containers. The costs to dismantle and transport the containers will ultimately cost more than the “construction” of the faulty makeshift barrier: in the Cochise National Forest, Ducey paid about $95 million to assemble the containers miles from the border and at least $105 million to take down.