"I'll take THINGS THAT WILL NEVER HAPPEN for $800, Alex."
The House approved a bill Friday to make the District of Columbia the 51st state, saying Congress has both the moral obligation and constitutional authority to ensure that the city's 700,000 residents are allowed full voting rights, no longer subject to "taxation without representation.'' Lawmakers approved the bill, 232-180, largely along party lines, marking the first time either chamber of Congress has passed a DC statehood bill, the AP reports. The legislation now goes to the Republican-controlled Senate, where it faces insurmountable opposition from GOP leaders. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, the district's non-voting representative in Congress, sponsored the bill. It would create a new state of Washington, Douglass Commonwealth, in honor of the Maryland-born Frederick Douglass, and shrink the US district to federal buildings.
Where to begin? First of all, this abomination will die in the Senate. Even if it didn't, the Constitution would have to be amended if you want this to have even a shred of legality. That will take a couple of years at least and it won't work anyway. Let's just say that I would have a better chance of trying out with and making the St. Louis Cardinals than that amendment would have of ever seeing the light of day.
"Shrink the US district to federal buildings?" Not happening. Do these people seriously think that the rest of us are going to put up with a pitiful little entity having that much control over our federal government? The federal district will have to be moved which kills DC tourism deader than Judas Iscariot, Artur Schopenhauer or the XFL.
Which would be a shame since the only thing Washington produces is "governance" and it sucks at that. It's got no industry, no farmland. It can't produce anything anybody wants. Which means that the rest of us are going to be supporting this "state" pretty much until Christ returns.
On the plus side, at least the new state's motto has been picked out.
The Welfare State.
Don't get me started on how high the tax bills of DC residents will be raised. The District will be paying federal and state taxes now and those will be through the roof. After all, the tourists won't be coming in anymore and we've got to get money from somewhere.
4 comments:
When the District of Columbia was established, it was a rectangle with the Potomac River running through it. The Virginia portion of the rectangle (Alexandria) was returned to Virginia in 1846. The proper thing to do with DC today would be to return it to Maryland, with the federal areas designated as under National Park System control. DC residents are hard-left and would fit in nicely with Maryland.
I don't think that's ever going to happen either, Katherine. The Democrats want that extra Democratic state so badly they can taste it. This has nothing to do with anybody's "rights."
No, it will just be a talking point and no changes will be made.
The original concerns which motivated the creation of the district are now quaint. The optimal solution would be
1. Retrocession, which would render DC voters part of the Maryland Congressional delegation and
2. Adoption in Maryland and Virginia of a mirror amendment which would enable and maintain a menu of institutions contingent on periodic referenda. The contingent practice would distribute the authority of the Maryland legislature between four conciliar bodies: one council each for Montgomery County, Prince George's County, and the District; and an assembly for the rest of the state. For Virginia, the legislative power would be distributed between five councils: one each for Arlington / Alexandria, Fairfax County & c, Prince William County &c, and Loudon County; and an assembly for the rest of the state. Privileges and immuniities due people in the counties in question would under the respective constitutions be in abeyance in favor of those listed in an interstate compact.
3. The composition and ratification of an interstate compact creating a municipal corporation governing the seven counties in question. Conciliar bodies elected in each component would be the default locus of legislative power. A common council elected over the whole seven county territory would have three sets of powers (1) enumerated conduit powers any legislature should have; (2) a spare set of baseline powers that you would not wish to have the components exercising; and (3) supplementary powers specified in a statute of common government. The statute would be composed and amended by a biennial convocation of all the component councils, proceeding by weighted voting. The councils of the seven components would thus regulate the delegated powers exercised by the whole.
You enact this, Maryland and Virginia are treated as two states for purposes of congressional representation, but (contingent on periodic referenda) can be treated as three states for purposes as provincial government as the quintessential Maryland, the quintessential Virginia, and greater Washington each go their own way on policy.
DC constitutes just 15% of the urban settlement around Washington and should not perform any functions characteristics of supralocal government.
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