Should Washington, DC become a State? What are the reasons the people who live in DC want to become the fifty-first State of the Union? They tell us that 86% of the residents are in agreement Washington, DC should become a State of the Union. What is their support for becoming a State? The single answer is that the nation’s income tax laws apply equally to everyone, as they must. A paragraph below, explains why the previous sentence is the reason federal income taxes inform the problem of 86% of the residents of the District of Columbia. The Constitution holds that the seat of the government of the United States of American shall not be in one of the States of the Union. The delegates to the Constitutional Convention in 1787, nearly to a majority believed it was just fine if the seat of the government of the United States of America were in their state, but not in anyone else’s State. The animosity of the delegates in the Convention well-informs the delegates that it was not merely prescient, it was necessary.
Since the 1970s when some clever marketing genius wrote in support of Statehood for the District of Columbia, “No Taxes without Representation,” there has been no end to agitation. Congress and the rest of the population of the United States have attempted to ameliorate the impasse, but to no avail. The District has a non-voting representative, the same number of representatives as Washington would have, based on population, if Washington were a state. Representative Holmes, was elected to serve the people of the District: she may sponsor and introduce legislation, speak from the floor, Chair a Committee, participate in other standing committees, and a dozen or more other rights, but none to have voting rights. The seat of the government is different from any other part of the nation’s government; the Federal District takes orders only from Congress and serves only Congress. There is no overlap with powers or control by any state. The Federal District has its own police force and enough size to maintain order safely for the ten-mile-square size of the original District. It does not have a National Guard.
Why do the eighty-six percent of the residents of Washington, DC choose to live in that city? There are no occupations in Washington that require one to live in the City. Thinking about it this way, it becomes evident that the people living in Washington chose to live there, were not coerced to live there, but actually found personal reasons, such as to earn more money from their work than was offered elsewhere.
The government of the United States of America first came to order on March 4, 1789 at Federal Hall in New York City, and remained for two years and then left to Congress Hall in Philadelphia from March 4, 1791 through 1799 when the United States Capitol came into use on March 4, 1799. The seat of the government has remained there ever since, except for wartime in 1812 when the British set it afire. Housing was scarce in the District and Congressmen roomed together at first. Georgetown, Maryland was founded in 1751 and Alexandria, Virginia in 1749, both becoming part of the District of Columbia in 1790 until 1846 when Alexandria was retroceded back to Virginia. The residents of Alexandria reobtained their voting rights in 1846 when Virginia’s original grant of land to the United States government was returned to Virginia by retroceding it back to Virginia. It is unlikely the residents of the District of Columbia paid any personal taxes to the United States government on account of their residency in the District. That would have changed during the Civil War, when the United States Government established an individual income tax for all residents of states, enclaves and territories.
The people of the United States have already had a chance to speak to the District’s desires to become a state. The 23rd Amendment grants to the District the right to vote in presidential elections since 1961. Then in 1978 Congress passed a Statehood Amendment to the Constitution giving to the District seats in the Senate and House of Representatives. Only sixteen states approved it before the final ratification date expired. So, now the Democratically controlled House of Representatives have proposed H.R. 51 which would carve out a small bit of the currently 7 square miles that is Washington, DC. The Founders already spoke to that issue in drafting the Constitution to make the District large enough to have a separate District police force, and placed the amount of land at ten square miles. Apparently seven square miles was determined sufficient by both Congress and Virginia to establish police protection at sufficient scale with only seven square miles. The new proposal is for the seat of the government to be a measly amount of land within the seven square miles; a farce!
A final conclusion; the people who live in the District had their reasons for choosing to live there. It is a rich city, residents are among the highest-paid of any in the nation. All the conditions in the District today are the same or better for the oldest living resident when that resident’s decision was made. Washingtonians have made their choices already. The origination for H.R. 51 is pure politics by the Democratic Party. The income tax Amendment was passed in 1913, and only in the 1970s did it become a faux issue. Also since then has motivation for annual passage of H.R. 1 arisen. It too is of the same political motivation as H.R. 51. I say to the Democratic Party, go back to work and serve the whole nation, and quit using the nations’ time and money for the benefit of your Party.
Publiustoo.com June 8, 2022
