Why should i pay $14 to enter the US?

[nacelle]

I just found out theres a charge now for the ESTA.
I am totally furious. Apparently obama is behind this. Thanks so much for voting in a mindless puppet!
This is from the ESTA website when you click apply:

The Travel Promotion Act of 2009
On March 4, 2010, President Obama signed into law the Travel Promotion Act (TPA) of 2009, Pub. L. No. 111-145. The Act directs the Secretary of Homeland Security to establish a fee for the use of the ESTA system, comprised of $10.00 for each VWP applicant receiving authorization to travel to the United States and $4.00 for the processing of the ESTA application. Applicants who are denied authorization to travel to the U.S. under the VWP will only be charged $4.00. The fee may only be paid by credit card.

Why should i pay for a visa waiver?
Apparently the $10 is to promote tourism. WTF! Like how is it going to promote tourism when they charge tourists a fee to enter the country?
What happens if you dont have a credit card? Not everybody does.
Its more likely to keep people away especially when flights and such cost so much now people just dont need any more expense added to a well deserved holiday/vacation.
Un f-ing believable.
The UK or any other country for that matter doesnt charge US citizens to enter their country. But i really do think the UK should start charging US citizens to enter the UK.
If they are going to pull this crap on us then we need to return the favour and bring some much needed tourism money of our own.
Maybe we could call our fee a tourist tax! Everything else gets taxed here, why not the visitors?
Unless your a so called asylum seeker of course. Then you get a massive free house and thousands of pounds in benefits!
Serioulsly pissed off and needed to rant.

 

[FalsePriest]

It's $14. I think you can manage... vacations are full of many larger sneaky charges.

 

[Brian]

So, which is it? Is he the mastermind behind it? Or is he just a mindless puppet?

Make up your mind.

 

[nacelle]

It might only be $14 to you but its money out of my very tight food budget for this years trip.
That is if there is going to be a trip at all this year. Vegas con is looking very uncertain at this point.
The flight alone costs so much that it doesnt leave me any money for anything else. Like food for example let alone a hotel!
Everything is extremely tightly budgeted, so i dont need this extra shit.

 

[Sector 7]

Considering your disrespect for the President of the United States of America, we do not need you here. Stay where you are and complain about wherever you live instead.

 

[nacelle]

So, which is it? Is he the mastermind behind it? Or is he just a mindless puppet?

Make up your mind.

Who the hell knows who behind it but obama signed off on it! Mindless puppet then.

 

[nacelle]

Considering your disrespect for the President of the United States of America, we do not need you here. Stay where you are and complain about wherever you live instead.

Disrespect! He has not done anything to earn my respect.
That goes for the airport porn scanners and the sexual assault searched people have to go through now just to travel in the US a well.
Charging me to enter the country doesnt do any thing to earn my respect.
Seems to me it violates my right to travel freely throughout the world.

 

[FalsePriest]

It might only be $14 to you but its money out of my very tight food budget for this years trip.
That is if there is going to be a trip at all this year. Vegas con is looking very uncertain at this point.
The flight alone costs so much that it doesnt leave me any money for anything else. Like food for example let alone a hotel!
Everything is extremely tightly budgeted, so i dont need this extra shit.

My advice is loosen up. Sounds like it's going to cost a lot anyway, and microbudgeting is only going to cause stress when I'm sure there will be plenty of wiggle room for $14 in the grand scheme of things.

 

[Canadave]

If $14 is too much, then you probably shouldn't be travelling across the Atlantic.

Anyway, you have to pay for a lot of things in international travel... passports, airport fees\toll bridges, etc.

 

[JarodRussell]

Considering your disrespect for the President of the United States of America, we do not need you here. Stay where you are and complain about wherever you live instead.

What the fuck.

 

[bigdaddy]

Because you are a mindless puppet that will pay it. Frankly we have enough of your kind in the USA already, and don't need you here anyways. If you can't afford $14 then you have other problems you should worry about besides a vacation to a country with a mindless puppet in charge.

Maybe we should vote in the people you like so GE can get away with making 14 billion dollars and not paying any taxes! Oh wait... too late!

 

[Brian]

Considering your disrespect for the President of the United States of America, we do not need you here. Stay where you are and complain about wherever you live instead.

Disrespect! He has not done anything to earn my respect.
That goes for the airport porn scanners and the sexual assault searched people have to go through now just to travel in the US a well.
Charging me to enter the country doesnt do any thing to earn my respect.
Seems to me it violates my right to travel freely throughout the world.

Welcome to the United States. Please check your tinfoil hat at the border.

 

[JarodRussell]

This is hilarious. Both the OP and the responses.

 

[nacelle]

It not the amount its also the principle of it.
Like i said the UK does not charge you enter the country!

 

[FalsePriest]

It not the amount its also the principle of it.
Like i said the UK does not charge you enter the country!

It costs money to have services and programs in place to allow you to enter the country. I don't see the problem in having you bear that cost, rather than US taxpayers. Maybe if the government weren't drowning in debt it'd be a nice freebee for you... but this isn't the time to bleed money.

 

[JarodRussell]

I don't see the problem in having you bear that cost, rather than US taxpayers.

Haha, what the hell, why should foreigners/non citizens pay the debts the US made?

 

[ALF]

Here's my foolproof method of avoiding problems when traveling to the USA:

Spoiler: USA

Don't go to the USA.

 

[FalsePriest]

I don't see the problem in having you bear that cost, rather than US taxpayers.

Haha, what the hell, why should foreigners/non citizens pay the debts the US made?

Please don't take my words out of context. That "cost" is the cost of the programs necessary to allow foreigners to enter the country. That's a cost visitors are creating.

 

[Captain Craig]

So, which is it? Is he the mastermind behind it? Or is he just a mindless puppet?

Make up your mind.

Reminds me of when Bush was either a moron on an idiot savant depending on the issue at hand and how the media and/or his adversaries wanted to frame him at that moment.

 

[Brian]

Except this time he was behind it and a puppet in the same breath, lol.