With a dark expression, Mr. Thurray and his family left Golden State. At that moment, the Speaker of the Congress glanced at the material in his hand and, under the limited flash of the cameras, slowly stood up.
“The results of the vote, excluding one abstention and two objections, are all in favor. The ‘Federal International Security Act’ has been passed with an absolute majority.”
This news spread like a massive earthquake throughout the Federation at an extremely fast speed. At the congressional press conference half an hour later, the Majority Leader and the Speaker appeared together. This was actually a rare occurrence, because they both represented the highest power in the parliament.
Many times, the appearance of just one of them was enough to handle various situations, but today, they appeared together.
Although people already knew that something was not quite right, they still felt it was incredible to see the two of them appear at the same time.
Everyone knew that this would be a very special press conference that would affect the future destiny of the Federation.
The scene was very quiet, and the reporters were also very orderly. It wasn’t that they didn’t want to be unruly, but that they didn’t dare to be.
If they were to be resented by these two big shots, they were very likely to be blacklisted by the entire industry, and might even be miserable enough to not be able to find a job to support themselves, and could only go to the countryside to farm.
In public propaganda, people always say that if necessary, the president will also be required to stand in the dock.
But in reality, if this is not a political show, then it is the result of a political purge.
As for whether it is possible that the president is really just simply required to stand in the dock?
Come on, as a person who can sign a presidential order to change the selection of the chief justice, a person who can pardon himself anytime, anywhere, when he is unwilling to stand in that position, no one can force him to do so.
The president can even ignore the law and refuse to appear in the dock, let alone the Speaker or the Majority Leader.
All those who can judge them are their subordinates. How can they be judged?
After the two sat down, the reporters began to raise their hands in an orderly manner.
The Speaker casually pointed to a reporter from the Federal Daily. The reporter first thanked the two gentlemen, and then raised his own question, “Why did the Federal Congress pass such a sensitive proposal at this time?”
“We know that the war on the Tanfit continent is constantly escalating. I noticed that there are multiple clauses in the ‘International Security Act’ that allow for war measures to be taken before Congress passes them.”
“Will this become the trigger for the Federation to join the battlefield?”
Here we have to mention the issue of war in the Federation. The President can only launch a military operation, and the time cannot exceed three months.
At the same time, he cannot launch a large-scale military operation. The scale is limited to a certain range.
This leads to the fact that if a military conflict really breaks out, whether to respond to the war still needs to be voted on and passed by Congress, and then authorized to the president and the military.
Only then do they have the qualification and power to start a war. Otherwise, after the other side ceases fire, they must also immediately cease fire and let Congress vote to decide what to do next.
Now the “International Security Act” gives the President the qualification to directly launch a war in a state of military friction.
This means that a war could break out at any time due to two soldiers shooting at each other!
From an objective and rational point of view, the “International Security Act” is obviously an irrational bill. It will make some military actions that may have been originally for deterrence directly evolve into a war.
For example, a common practice is to fire shells into the other side’s waters. These shells are not intended to hit anything, but just to deter the other side, to tell them not to get close, or not to have any bad ideas.
But now, as long as the president believes they are attacking, then he can order the navy to attack in full force!
The reporter’s question left only countless pairs of eyes staring at the two gentlemen on the stage, and the constantly flashing camera flashes.
The Speaker shook his head. “This is a good question, but we cannot look at this problem too lightly.”
“The Prime Minister of the Dantra Republic has already issued a statement to us, demanding that we immediately stop all trade with the Tanfit continent, otherwise they will consider us a war adversary.”
“Ladies and gentlemen, the current economy of the Federation has already declined very severely due to some reasons.”
“If we lose those orders and customers from the Tanfit continent, it will be a heavy blow to the factory owners who are struggling domestically.”
“According to the results of our statistics last year, nearly 70% of the Federation’s export goods have their final destination in the countries and regions on the Tanfit continent.”
“We have already lost a portion of our orders. If we lose all of them, I cannot imagine how bad the domestic economy will become.”
“The Dantra Republic may attack our merchant ships, or even our ports and warehouses because of this.”
“In order to deal with the crazy Dantra people and ensure a timely military response, it is very necessary. Once they launch an undeclared war against us, at least we will not delay precious time because we need to go through procedures, and let the people suffer more losses.”
“If they do not try to interfere in the internal affairs of the Federation by force, then the ‘International Security Act’ will not be activated.”
“We are not keen on war, but we must also have the courage to punch back at war!”
Everyone nodded one after another. Besides the sound of the flashbulbs bursting, there was only the rustling sound of pen tips recording on notebooks.
A very good answer. The reporter from the Federal Daily sat back down, and then a reporter from the Federal Post was also called upon and stood up.
These traditional heavyweight newspapers and magazines have a very good reputation here. In addition, their political stances and the review system with political stances mean that no matter what material they have interviewed, what is ultimately presented to the audience is what the political world allows them to present.
The reporter from the Post was a little older and looked like he did serious news. “Mr. Speaker, Mr. … (the Majority Leader), good afternoon.”
“If the Dantra Republic rashly launches a war against us first, will we intervene in the main frontal battlefield, or will we only contend with them in the East Ocean?”
“In the overall war, what kind of role will we play, and what benefits can we expect to gain from the war?”
A very naked question, and at the same time it represented the “correct answer.” This was also a kind of procedure.
This time, it was the Majority Leader who answered. “I will answer this question.”
“Actually, since the end of last year, we have been considering these issues.”
“At that time, the Dantra Republic had seized the wealth of federal businessmen, and had killed, injured, and expelled them. They had also plundered some of our free trade cargo ships, causing our citizens to suffer huge economic losses.”
“We have been worried about the escalation of friction and have been actively communicating through diplomatic channels, but the effect has not been good.”
“So you should also have seen that we have a plan to station troops in Golden Port City, which is to protect our legitimate interests in the international arena.”
“It’s just that considering international friendship, we have never implemented it.”
“But with the constant pressure from the Dantra Republic, we have to respond.”
“If we join the war, we will assume the role we need to play in this war.”
“We are not spoilers, we are not speculators. We are partners of justice. All our purposes and actions are to protect the property safety and personal safety of our citizens overseas.”
“The federal government is a responsible government. With the emergence and thickening of the atmosphere of great internationalism, we will be more active in the international community in the future and become the focus of people’s attention.”
“If this war really breaks out, we will definitely go deep into the main frontal battlefield, assist other allied forces, and together on the battlefield, crush the crazy thoughts of the Prime Minister of the Dantra Republic.”
“After the war is over, we will demand that the President of the Dantra Republic, the ruling party, apologize for the war crimes they have committed, apologize to the federal citizens who have been harmed by their greed and crazy desires, and also recover all the losses suffered by our citizens in the Dantra Republic…”
The entire press conference lasted for more than two hours, including many details of what would happen “if” a war broke out.
These contents were published in detail. Lance got a special issue of the Federal Daily in the evening.
The entire special issue was full of content about this news. At the same time, he noticed a very interesting thing.
In a proposal that had been passed recently, a tax law reform plan was mentioned. Originally, according to the regulations of the federal government, federal citizens with an income of less than one hundred dollars a month could be exempt from tax.
But now it had changed.
After the tax law was revised, as long as a person had an income, they had to pay tax.
It was just that their tax amount would not be particularly high. The overall calculation method was a progressive one, with the highest tax rate being 45%.
In addition, some special circumstances were also introduced. For example, during a war, the country needs a large amount of funds to be invested in the war.
In order to obtain this part of the funds, the country will therefore implement a “wartime unified tax rate,” which means that regardless of whether a citizen’s income is one dollar or one million, they all enjoy the same tax rate.
This tax rate starts at a minimum of 55% and a maximum of 100%, to be decided by a vote of Congress.
At the same time, in order to protect the interests of the citizens, the federal government will issue war bonds at the beginning of the war.
Buying war bonds can be used to offset taxes, but it cannot offset the entire amount of tax…
In short, this was a set of bills that looked a bit of a headache. Its core was only one point—
Once a war breaks out, not only do you have to pay taxes, but you also have to be soft-assigned bonds.
That night, the Dantra Republic learned of the Federation’s decision. They, on the contrary, were not like before, clamoring that they would immediately start a war as soon as the Federation stationed troops.
Instead, it was as if they still didn’t know.
They now had to think, to respond, and also to consider whether they could handle it if a war really broke out.
In such a suddenly quiet period of time, more refugees began to pour into the Federation…
(End of a Chapter)