The Biden administration is used to getting its way.
And they love throwing around taxpayer dollars to buy off any opposition.
But these Texas ranchers just left Joe Biden with his hand out after they said ‘no’ to this one thing.
It’s a classic Democrat maneuver – and one that usually works.
When things aren’t going their way, the left will just buy off whoever’s standing in their way.
With other people’s money of course.
And most people can be bought. As they say, “everyone has their price.”
Well, it turns out that isn’t always true, at least not in the Lonestar State.
According to a report in The Washington Examiner, the Department of Agriculture is giving farmers and ranchers in Texas the opportunity to make financial claims for damaged property such as fencing, lost livestock, and crops due to the number of illegal immigrants coming onto their property.
However, Texas ranchers are refusing to cash-in on these handouts from the Biden administration, saying it does nothing to actually solve the problem.
They prefer that the government address the crisis on the border – not offer payouts.
“It looks good on paper. It looks good in the media,” rancher John Paul Schuster told The Examiner. “But in reality, it’s not servicing us right now.”
“I don’t have high hopes we’re going to get money or that it’s going to work because of the way they’ve worded it,” said Page Day, a professional outfitter who hosts and guides hunters on his 20,000 acre ranch.
Day, who has spent around $60,000 on fence repairs alone, told The Examiner, “I almost want to say it’s a political stunt by the government to say, ‘Look, we are helping the ranchers.”
Billy Whaley says the application process will be way too slow and cumbersome to bother.
“It’s probably going to be more trouble than it’s worth [to apply] because nothing is simple with the government,” Whaley said.
“If I have to spend four or five hours filling out stuff and sending it in then have somebody come look at it, by the time they do that, we’ve already fixed another fence.”
And Ann Hodge tells The Examiner that she and her husband want nothing to do with it.
“We don’t want anything from the government. There’s going to be strings attached,” she said.
“You never know when they’re going to try and say they might need that money back now and have the power to take it away from us.”
As usual, the government just doesn’t get it.
The endless wave of illegal immigrants trespassing and trampling on Texas farmland is costing ranchers money in ways the federal government hasn’t thought about – like the impact of the amount of trash illegal immigrants have left behind.
“Those cattle eat it, and because of their digestive system and the way it’s set up, they end up getting what we call hardware disease. They can’t process their diet anymore, so they get skinny and eventually die,” Schuster said.
In fact, Schuster says it’s actually far worse than that because, with the border wide open, any moment of the day or night can turn into fear and panic.
He emailed The Examiner last week saying that officials from the Texas Department of Public Safety had alerted him that they were searching his property for illegal immigrants.
“DPS called me and said ‘foot chase headed towards your house,’” Schuster wrote.
“So, we turned off all the TVs and one light wife had on in bedroom. She went to bed — I am sitting still in recliner with dog and pistol by my side.”
Well Joe Biden, how much money do you think it’ll take to buy that off?