Tuesday - February 24, 2009

This Is Wrong

[ Looking at the other side of the coin, DC has the entire Congress, because running the city is part of their job. See WiseGeek for details. People who live in DC do not have the same voting rights as we do ... because they are not citizens of any state. But different does not mean none. And equal should be out of their reach: they are not a state. That’s their advantage and their albatross. Tough shit. That’s the deal. ]

The District of Columbia’s two-century-long wait for a voice in Congress was a step closer to ending Tuesday with a crucial Senate vote to take up legislation giving the capital city’s 600,000 residents a full seat in the House.

The Senate voted 62-34, two more than needed, to begin debate on the measure that would increase the House to 437 members. It would give the Democratic-dominated city a new vote while adding a fourth seat to Republican-leaning Utah.

Key to the vote was that Democrats, who overwhelmingly support the bill, have seven more Senate seats than two years ago when the chamber fell three votes short of the 60 required to end a Republican-led filibuster.

The bill still faces contentious amendments and may have to overcome GOP opposition to moving to a final vote. If it does pass the Senate, possibly by the end of the week, the bill goes on to a receptive House and ultimately to President Barack Obama, who supports it.

If enacted into law, the measure is likely to face court challenges from opponents who contend that giving a House seat to D.C. is unconstitutional because the District is not a state. The Supreme Court could be the final arbiter.

“I find it unimaginable that 600,000 Americans have no voice and no vote in the United States Congress,” the Senate’s no. 2 Democrat, Dick Durbin of Illinois, said in urging support for the measure.

Washington has been without a vote in Congress since 1801, when Congress took control of the newly created capital on the Potomac but did not provide residents with voting rights.

I’m not sure that anyone was ever supposed to actually live in Washington DC. It was set up to be the working capital of the country, and not be part of any state. Do the people who live there deserve to have representation in the legislature? Sure they do. But not their own.

Allow me to solve this “terrible crisis” for all the dunderheads in DC. I’ll do it in 3 seconds, and it won’t cost a thing:

And DC specific laws? There probably aren’t any. One city not part of any state, but represented by two states. Self-rule to the extent of any other city ... but no law can be passed that does not agree with both existing Maryland and Virginia law. So all that gun control horse poo goes right out the window; the ghetto bunnies on the northwest side now have the same rights as citizens of Virginia, and the ghetto bunnies on the southeast side now have the same rights as citizens of Maryland.

My plan would not add any new Congress weasels. Assuming the DC ghetto is evenly spread across the city, that would be an extra 300,000 welfare recipients for Virginia to represent, about the same for the MD end of things. So, these two reps would have a slightly greater consituency than average. Big deal. My plan would also remove their votes from the Electoral College, since the city is now represented by the two states. Right now they have 3, as if they already had 2 Senators and a Congressman ... as if they were already a state. One vote would go to each State, which would actually better empower both those states in terms of Electoral Votes per capita.

The District has been represented since 1991 by Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton. Norton, like five other delegates from island territories, can vote in committees and on some amendments on the House floor but not on final passage of legislation.

Posted by Drew458     on 02/24/2009 at 02:34 PM   
Filed Under: • Politics •  
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