VOA常速英语2019--特朗普为建造边境墙而宣布国家紧急状态

President Donald Trump¹ may have ended a battle over the federal budget, but he opened a door to a much bigger dispute when he declared a national emergency to build his border wall. It’s a great thing to do, because we have an invasion of drugs, invasion of gangs, invasion of people, and it’s not acceptable.

唐纳德·特朗普总统或许了结了有关联邦预算的纷争，但他挑起了更大的争议，因为他宣布国家进入紧急状态，目的是建造边境墙。建造边境墙是大好事，因为有人通过毒品、犯罪团伙和人的手段来入侵美国，这是不可接受的。

Some, including President Trump’s own Republican Party, do not accept that rationale, saying the president is abusing his powers and bypassing congress. Fundamentally, this should be congress’ role, and I’m afraid this lets congress off the hook from doing its job. It is not emergency. What’s happening at the border is humanitarian² challenge to us. The president, it has tried to sell a bill of goods to American people.

一些人，包括特朗普所在的共和党内部的一些议员，都无法接受特朗普的说辞。他们认为，特朗普正在滥用权力，以绕过国会这一关。从本质上来说，这应该国会扮演的角色。我担心特朗普此举会导致国会无法完成自己的本职工作。这不是紧急状态。边境发生的一切对我们和总统本人来说都是人道主义领域的挑战，而总统本人试图强买强卖，想让美国人民买账。

Presidents in both major US political parties have increasingly used executive power to unilaterally implement³ their policies. But President Trump appears to be employing one of the boldest uses of emergency powers to force through such a politically divisive policy. He has continuously claims that he would just use emergency power as a workaround to congressional action, and that is a very rare instance of usage of emergency powers by presidents.

美国两个主要政党选出的多位总统都越来越凸显出一个趋势——通过行政方面的权力来单方面执行自己想要推行的政策。但特朗普总统通过宣布紧急状态权力来迫使政策实施的举动似乎是最为大胆的，其目的是强制推行导致政见不合的政策。特朗普一直在说自己会动用宣布进入紧急状态的权力来灵活绕开国会的行动，而历史上鲜有哪位总统是通过该权力来实现目的的。

There are also concerns about this president’s decision setting a precedent⁴. You could say global warming is a national emergency. You could say that lack of affordable⁵ house care is a national emergency. You could say that homelessness is a national emergency. Meant all of them are at least plausible⁶, if not more plausible than the need of building a security wall.

还有人担心，特朗普的决定会开不好的先例。你可以说，因为有全球变暖，所以我要宣布国家进入紧急状态；你可以说因为国家对经济适用房的补贴不够，所以要宣布国家进入紧急状态；你也可以说因为无家可归的人太多，所以要宣布国家进入紧急状态。也就是说，这些理由至少都是说得过去的，就算其说服力没有压过建造边境墙这件事。

Trump may have further hurt his legal chances on Friday when he himself seems to suggest the border situation wasn’t an immediate⁷ crisis. I could do the wall for a longer period of time. I don’t need to do this but I’d rather do it much faster. Congress will likely try to overturn the president’s national emergency, but at this point there probably aren’t enough vote to overcome a veto.

特朗普可能自己也补了刀，让自己在法律方面立不住脚，因为周五的时候，他自己似乎也承认了边境安全的局势并非紧急危机。建造边境墙，我也不是非要急于一时。我不是非要现在做不可，但我希望能以更快的速度完成。国会很有可能会想办法终结特朗普的国家紧急状态，但目前国会手握的票数还不足以形成对进入国家紧急状态的否决。

1 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

2 humanitarian   

n.人道主义者，博爱者，基督凡人论者

参考例句：

• She has many humanitarian interests and contributes a lot to them.她拥有很多慈善事业，并作了很大的贡献。
• The British government has now suspended humanitarian aid to the area.英国政府现已暂停对这一地区的人道主义援助。

3 implement   

n.(pl.)工具，器具；vt.实行，实施，执行

参考例句：

• Don't undertake a project unless you can implement it.不要承担一项计划，除非你能完成这项计划。
• The best implement for digging a garden is a spade.在花园里挖土的最好工具是铁锹。

4 precedent   

n.先例，前例；惯例；adj.在前的，在先的

参考例句：

• Is there a precedent for what you want me to do?你要我做的事有前例可援吗？
• This is a wonderful achievement without precedent in Chinese history.这是中国历史上亘古未有的奇绩。

5 affordable   

adj.支付得起的，不太昂贵的

参考例句：

• The rent for the four-roomed house is affordable.四居室房屋的房租付得起。
• There are few affordable apartments in big cities.在大城市中没有几所公寓是便宜的。

6 plausible   

adj.似真实的，似乎有理的，似乎可信的

参考例句：

• His story sounded plausible.他说的那番话似乎是真实的。
• Her story sounded perfectly plausible.她的说辞听起来言之有理。

7 immediate   

adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的

参考例句：

• His immediate neighbours felt it their duty to call.他的近邻认为他们有责任去拜访。
• We declared ourselves for the immediate convocation of the meeting.我们主张立即召开这个会议。