Time for the Senate to end taxation without representation
The irony for the District of Columbia’s nearly 600,000 residents is that while they may be living in the capital of the free world, they don’t have a say when it comes to the laws that Congress passes. Unlike other American citizens across the country, D.C. residents pay taxes but don’t get to elect anyone to represent them in Congress.
The U.S. Senate will weigh in tomorrow on a bill that would give D.C. residents a full member in the U.S. House.
Similar legislation is moving through the House. It’s time for the Senate to end D.C.’s taxation without representation. Steny Hoyer has a great historical perspective on the issue in the WaPo piece, “Time to Keep the Founders’ Promise in D.C.“
Of course, opponents of the D.C. Voting Rights bill will do what they can to stop it.
The Senate should set partisan politics aside and give D.C. residents the right of representation. As Sen. Joe Lieberman said, the bill’s passage would correct a “fundamental injustice.”