Three Ring Circus - Random Trivia Answers

• A1) Executive, legislative, and judicial. The separation of powers and the set of checks and balances, both credited to Montesquieu, allow for a strong central government while preventing abuse of power.
• A2) Senators. Members of the Senate serve six-year terms, the President and Vice President four, and Representatives two.
• A3) 537. The current total is composed of the President, Vice President, one hundred Senators, and 435 Representatives. The Senate is currently considering a bill to add two more Representatives (one to include Washington, D.C. to join and one to reflect Utah's higher population).
• A4) Thirty Thousand (30,000). This limit was kept until 1911, when the total House size of 435 was frozen because the House had grown seven-fold since its creation. The House temporarily reached 437 people after Alaska and Hawaii joined the country.
• A5) Number One Observatory Circle. The house at the United States Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C. was built in 1893 and gained its new duties mainly to make it cheaper and easier to provide security for the Vice President and his family.
• A6) Attorney General. Eighty Attorney Generals have led the Department of Justice, spanning Edmund Randolph from 1789 to 1794 and Alberto Gonzales from 2003 to the present.
• A7) Secretary of Homeland Security. George W. Bush created the position in 2003, mainly in response to the 9/11 attacks. The Secretary of Veterans Affairs was created fifteen years earlier.
• A8) 18. After the top few positions, the Presidential Order of Succession follows the date by which the positions were created. After the President comes the Vice President, Speaker of the House, President Pro Tempore of the Senate, and the fifteen cabinet members.
• A9) North. The House meets in the South Wing.
• A10) Nine (9). California (53 votes), Texas (32), New York (29), Florida (25), Illinois (19), Pennsylvania (19), Ohio (18), Michigan (15), and Georgia (13) total 223 votes. Other combinations of states are possible.
• A11) Seven (7). Wyoming, Vermont, North Dakota, Alaska, South Dakota, Delaware, and Montana each have only one Representative. Rhode Island, Hawaii, New Hampshire, Maine, and Idaho each have two.
• A12) Executive (often) and Legislative (sometimes). One of the checks and balances in the government is that the Judicial branch does not appoint judges.

If you aren't familiar with the original song, or just to refresh your memory, check out the lyrics of "Three Ring Government".