This is not a national emergency: Congress must update the National Emergency Act

[mystery-ak]

This is not a national emergency: Congress must update the National Emergency Act
by Tiana Lowe
 | February 14, 2019 04:50 PM



Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has decided to embrace his inner Harry Reid and green light President Trump's emergency declaration.

As John Yoo noted earlier this month, the courts may find that Trump is within his rights to mobilize the military to build the wall when his gambit is inevitably challenged for its legality. Even Youngstown v. Sawyer, which reversed former President Harry Truman's seizure of private steel mills to supply the military during the Korean War, wouldn't necessarily imply that Trump would be out of bounds building the wall on land not privately owned.

Congress has failed to define the legal bounds of what is or isn't an emergency, but surely the term was never meant to deal with this.

Hundreds of thousands of immigrants are apprehended at our nation's southern border every year, meaning that the number of immigrants illegally entering the country could be greater by an order of magnitude. A sovereign nation, even one which embraces the free flow of labor, must defend its borders for security's sake, and Democrats calling a physical barrier "immoral" either don't understand the few hundred miles along our border that would see fewer illegal crossings with a wall, or they simply don't care.

But we know that this is not a national emergency for the same reason we knew it wasn't a national emergency a month ago, when Trump first touted this idea: We're all still here.

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https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/this-is-not-a-national-emergency-congress-must-update-the-national-emergency-act

[Sanguine]

BS, Ms. Lowe.

[ABX]

Obama declared a national emergency for the flu.

(Not kidding).

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/oct/24/swine-flu-barack-obama

[skeeter]

The one half of the one third of the federal government we control must make the rest of the government do what we want it to.

[XenaLee]

The one half of the one third of the federal government we control must make the rest of the government do what we want it to.

You jest.... but you have to admit.   What the left has done for the past two years has worked, albeit not as splendidly as they would have wanted.   The fake dossier spawned a fake investigation that still hasn't been officially called off or ended, and which HAS obviously changed people's minds, altered their votes and impacted the last election.  The left's mantra...."whatever works".

[skeeter]

You jest.... but you have to admit.   What the left has done for the past two years has worked, albeit not as splendidly as they would have wanted.   The fake dossier spawned a fake investigation that still hasn't been officially called off or ended, and which HAS obviously changed people's minds, altered their votes and impacted the last election.  The left's mantra...."whatever works".

As long as there is no opposition party everything they try WILL work.

I cannot believe the GOP allowed this bill to get to the president.

[Bill Cipher]

This really isn’t an emergency, national or otherwise. 

[Bigun]

As long as there is no opposition party everything they try WILL work.

I cannot believe the GOP allowed this bill to get to the president.

I keep telling you that the only party inside the beltway is the preserve the swamp at any cost party.

[Wingnut]

Pelosi warns GOP a future Democratic president could use the same tactic to impose gun control...

Go ahead.  Make my day.

[Sanguine]

This really isn’t an emergency, national or otherwise.

Really?  So, how do you define "emergency"?

[Bill Cipher]

Really?  So, how do you define "emergency"?

How do you define “emergency”?

[Sanguine]

How do you define “emergency”?

What we have right now.

[Bigun]

What we have right now.

If that's not one then there is no such thing if you ask me.

[Bill Cipher]

What we have right now.

That’s not a definition, it’s at most an illustration of what a definition might be. 

Still, the dictionary is a good place to start:  “a serious, unexpected, and often dangerous situation requiring immediate action.”

Serious, maybe.  Unexpected, definitely not.  Requiring immediate action, not to avert it, since we’ve been just fine with the situation for decades. 

Not really an emergency. 

[Sanguine]

That’s not a definition, it’s at most an illustration of what a definition might be. 

Still, the dictionary is a good place to start:  “a serious, unexpected, and often dangerous situation requiring immediate action.”

Serious, maybe.  Unexpected, definitely not.  Requiring immediate action, not to avert it, since we’ve been just fine with the situation for decades. 

Not really an emergency.

OK, fine, you want to avoid answering.  Don't make comments if you're not going to back them up.

[Bill Cipher]

OK, fine, you want to avoid answering.  Don't make comments if you're not going to back them up.

I didn’t avoid answering.  I answered.  There is a perfectly useful definition of an emergency.  And it doesn’t fit the current situation very well. 

[Bigun]

I didn’t avoid answering.  I answered.  There is a perfectly useful definition of an emergency.  And it doesn’t fit the current situation very well.

If an invasion doesn't qualify as an emergency pray tell what does?

[Bill Cipher]

If an invasion doesn't qualify as an emergency pray tell what does?

A uniformed army under the flag and protection of another sovereign power has entered the U.S. without permission with the intent of occupying land and governing it under laws that were not validly enacted by the federal and state governments?

[Frank Cannon]

OK, fine, you want to avoid answering.  Don't make comments if you're not going to back them up.

Interesting.

[XenaLee]

As long as there is no opposition party everything they try WILL work.

I cannot believe the GOP allowed this bill to get to the president.

As I've been saying for years.... (decades?).... except for a scant few GOPers....

they are complicit with the leftist/Democrat agenda.   Nothing else makes sense re: how they behave when they DO have the power to make a difference.

[skeeter]

A uniformed army under the flag and protection of another sovereign power has entered the U.S. without permission with the intent of occupying land and governing it under laws that were not validly enacted by the federal and state governments?

Uniformed or not the effect is the same, isn't it.

They've changed the government in my state, disenfranchised many of us citizens, and are in the process of enabling the new government to steadily usurp my Constitutional rights.

Of course this is all dandy with the left, so they see no emergency.

[Bigun]

A uniformed army under the flag and protection of another sovereign power has entered the U.S. without permission with the intent of occupying land and governing it under laws that were not validly enacted by the federal and state governments?

A non uniformed army is doing all those things as we speak.  And you damned well know it.

[DCPatriot]

OK, fine, you want to avoid answering.  Don't make comments if you're not going to back them up.

Bill Cipher is Oceander.   It's the way he rolls.   

[XenaLee]

This really isn’t an emergency, national or otherwise.

It's an emergency that is.....impending .... since...

if enough "migrants" make it across our border, our economy will eventually collapse due to unsustainability.  We're already broke and just paying the interest on our national debt.  And that doesn't even account for how many bona fide terrorists are coming across our borders.... that probably will create a 'real' national emergency some time in the future.

So yeah.... it's been an emergency that our PTBs and so-called ""leaders"" have failed to or refused to address and deal with.  I give Trump credit for at least trying.  But that doesn't mean I don't want to see solid results.  I expect solid results, in fact.... after all of his rhetoric.

[Sanguine]

Interesting.

I thought so too.