245 years ago, British colonists in North America rallied around the cry of “No taxation without representation” to fight for freedom, but the tax-paying residents of the nation’s capital still don’t have a vote in Congress. Mo Rocca looks at the issue for CBS Sunday Morning.
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On Thursday, the House of Representatives passed legislation to make the District of Columbia the nation’s 51st state. If passed, the 712,000 Americans in DC would have voting represention in Congress. Washingtonians paid $27.5 billion in federal taxes last year, so you’d think, what with that No-Taxation-Without Representation thing, Senate passage of the bill would be a slam-dunk. Nope.
More:
“The 5 dumbest GOP arguments against D.C. statehood,” Paul Waldman, Washington Post
“Steve Scalise’s Ignorant, Racist Case Against D.C. Statehood,” Jonathan Chait, New York Magazine
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Despite America’s founding principles, politics perpetuates taxation without representation in the United States. Kimberly Mas and Madeline Marshall explore why Washington DC is not a state in this Vox video.
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On Friday the U.S. House of Representatives, by a vote of 232-180, approved legislation granting statehood to Washington, D.C. The District’s 700,000 citizens, who pay federal income taxes, do not have voting representation in the U.S. Congress. This bill, if passed by the Senate and signed into law by the chief executive, would rectify that. In our current polarized political climate, those next two steps are unlikely to occur, but an election is looming.
The 51st state would still be known as Washington DC, but DC would stand for “Douglass Commonwealth,” in honor of long time resident Frederick Douglass, crusading abolitionist, orator, and publisher, who himself escaped from bondage. “District of Columbia” would refer to the area of monuments and federal buildings.
Washington DC has more residents than Wyoming and Vermont, and about the same population as North Dakota; each of those has a vote in the U.S. House and two in the Senate, and DC would get the same. The populations of Wyoming and North Dakota are about 90% White and Vermont is even whiter; DC is 46% African American. Perhaps that explains the Senate and White House reluctance to grant DC statehood. Every other excuse is just noise.
More:
“D.C. statehood approved by U.S. House for first time in history,” Jenna Portnoy, Washington Post
“In Historic Vote, House Approves Statehood for the District of Columbia,” Emily Cochrane, New York Times.
“In Historic First, The House Of Representatives Passes D.C. Statehood Bill,” Nathan Diller, DCist
“DC is closer to becoming a state now than it has ever been,” Ian Millhiser, Vox
“Six Colossally Stupid Arguments Against DC Statehood,” Jane Recker, Washingtonian
“Trump Is Exploiting D.C.’s Lack of Statehood,” Quinta Jurecic, The Atlantic
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Image ( DC neighborhood 4th of July Parade) by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com
Comments are welcome if they are on-topic, substantive, concise, and not boring or obscene. Comments may be edited for clarity and length.
This looks like a socialist cabal to Senator McConnell.
On Fox News, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told Laura Ingraham that a House propsal to grant statehood to the District of Columbia is “full-bore socialism.” If you haven’t been keeping score at home, residents of DC pay Federal Income Taxes but don’t have voting representation in Congress. The signers of the Declaration of Independence weren’t as comfortable with Taxation Without Representation as Mitch is. Neither are Washingtonians.
Americans who live in the District of Columbia pay Federal taxes, die in U.S. wars, but have no vote in Congress. What they have had, for over two centuries, is Taxation Without Representation. Sound familiar? John Oliver explains it all to you:
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