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US PRESIDENT DONALD Trump has done what he has been threatening to do for months, by declaring a national emergency in an attempt to get his much-promised border wall built.
The demand for the wall precipitated the recent government shutdown and although another shutdown has been averted, Trump has now escalated the dispute in pursuit of the wall.
The deal struck in Congress to fund government and avoid the shutdown includes almost $1.4 billion for fences and barriers along the southern border.
The amount is far short of the $5.7 billion required for the wall envisaged by Trump.
To get around this shortfall, the president will have to tap funding that does not require the approval of congress and this is where the declaration of a national emergency comes in.
The move is a significant use of executive power, is divisive in his own party and been described as an abuse of power by Democrats.
But what does it mean for Trump’s presidency and the wall itself?
Emergency act
The 1976 National Emergency Act essentially grants a president special, temporary powers allowing them to deal with a crisis.
Since it was introduced it has been used 58 times, but mostly to deal with foreign problems.
In many cases, the powers are used to freeze foreign or terrorist assets or to block imports from certain countries, such as conflict diamonds.
In the case of President Barack Obama, the only national emergency declaration not related to foreign policy was when one was declared to deal with the H1N1 flu pandemic.
When a president declares a national emergency, they are required to specify exactly which powers they intend to use.
In this case, the powers most useful to Trump would be those to direct the armed forces and to shuffle military construction funds.
Military construction accounts are used for the upgrade of bases and facilities and the Associated Press reports that there could be $21 billion available there.
But using this kitty for the wall could meet resistance, with the money often going towards improvements to housing, roads, hospitals and other facilities.
Not to mention the problem Trump could face from Republicans representing districts with military bases if money is taken away from those facilities.
The move would also go against long-held Republican principles of reducing rather than expanding the powers of federal government.
In addition, the use of emergency funding to build the wall is also likely to be vigorously contested in court.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Democrats are “reviewing our options” about how to respond to Trump’s move but described it as “a lawless act” and “a gross abuse of the power of the presidency”.
A challenge to the action could prove to be a major headache for the president, if precedent is anything to go by.
Donald J. Trump / Twitter
Donald J. Trump / Twitter / Twitter
As Vox points out, during Obama’s presidency Trump had tweeted opposition to Obama’s executive moves to give protections to immigrants facing deportation.
In that case, Obama’s moves fell foul of the courts and one of the key arguments was that the policies attempted to usurp the role of Congress. That same argument would almost certainly be used in court actions against Trump’s national emergency declaration.
Speaking in the White House Rose Garden, Trump himself acknowledged that legal challenges are inevitable.
“I expect to be sued, but I think we will win,” he told reporters.
I like sums but would ye not put a gap between the answers, kgb)… that’s the end of answer a attached to answer b… just saying
@Pat Corrigan: that irritated me too! esp when you can use letters in maths!
I could answer them all correctly if I wanted to but I don’t want to ruin it for others. I’ll read the answers tomorrow just to make sure ye have em all right.
d, a, c, b, c, b, c, c, d.
And then to Q 10.
Any proper mathematician will use brackets when framing a question. This question, and ones like it, are purposefully made to annoy people. However that said in this case use BODMAS and the answer is 1.
9 – 3 ÷ 1/3 + 1 = 9 – (3 ÷ 1/3) + 1 = 9 – (3*3) + 1 = 9 – 9 + 1 = 1
@Alan Rossiter: But yet…..
….the key bit is the 3 ÷ 1/3.
÷ and / both mean ‘divide by’ and thus carry equal weight in BODMAS.
Therefore 3÷1/3 is the same as 3÷1÷3. As they have equal value in terms of BODMAS then start from the left. The 3 on the left divided by 1 equals 3. That 3 divided by 3 equals 1. Therefore the equation now turns into 9-1+1 = 9.
And this sort of potential inexactness is exactly why no mathematician would ever frame that question that way in the first place!
I’m sorry I started. I was nearly asleep!
@Alan Rossiter: Q1 is c, rather than d.
And as for Q10, your first answer is right, as is the reason why these things always go around Facebook and the like with people fighting over the answer.
But 3 ÷ One Third (using words for clarity) isn’t the same as 3 ÷ 1 ÷ 3, as division isn’t associative (i.e., the order you do the operations matters). In fact, because division isn’t associative, 3 ÷ 1 ÷ 3 isn’t a well defined mathematical statement, as you get two different answers depending on the order of operations chosen.
@John Nolan: C it is. Damn.
@John Nolan: It’s true that 3 ÷ 1 ÷ 3 is not the same as 3 ÷ 1/3. However the question states the latter, which evaluates to 9. I don’t agree that there is any choice of orders of operation in this case. It’s equivalent to 3 ÷ 0.33333…
@Paraic: Yeah, I read it to myself as 3 divided by a third, which is 9 all day long. The way it’s written is not helpful. I don’t think I’ve used the divided by symbol (can’t even find it on my phone lol) since primary school.
@John Nolan: I was thinking that myself. Spot on with the other ones.
My brain tried but I am sure failed
You lost me at “have”
Q4 3rd of December is also a square number as well as 11/11 and 12/12
@Michael O’Carroll: I missed out on those, ran through it too quickly!
Is 1+1 still 2
C a c b c c is there a mistake in number 7? (Should D be 28?) C B …. and number 10 is ambiguous and a ridiculous assertion in there being one correct answer as you can use varied functions to achieve varied answers
@Declan Edward: 7 is fine. Set up your equation as follows : let x be the age now
x = 4(x-4) – 2(x+4)
x = 4x-16 – 2x -8
x = 2x – 24
24 = x
Check : 4 * 20 – 2 * 28 = 80-56=24.
Meh
Q.4 3rd December is also square as well as 11/11 and 12/12
@Michael O’Carroll: by their nature they have to be squared. It was a trick question.
BABBCBADA19
Jeez…it wouldn’t let me answer any of them…WTF!! Really!! Why do I waste my time?
c a c c c a c c d 1
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