DC Statehood? More Than Likely Not

Here are a few ways that might make a reasonable compromise

The easiest one would be to give the District Of Columbia’s delegate House voting floor privileges; the current delegate chairs one sub-committee, serves on other sub-committees, and serves on two full committees, but no, DC does not get any senators. Why no senators? Because DC is a federal district and not a state.

Here are other arguments: It’s not fair to the other territories. DC is not a territory. Again, it’s a federal district. It says so in the US Constitution. It would require a constitutional amendment to change it to a state. In my opinion, there is no way 37 states are going to ratify a constitutional amendment granting the residents of Washington, DC statehood. Again, it’s not a state. It took until 1961 to ratify the 23rd amendment that gave DC three electoral votes for presidential elections. From 1790 to 1961, 171 years, residents of the District Of Columbia could not vote in presidential elections. Democrat Lyndon Johnson received over 85% of the votes in DC’s first ever presidential election. DC residents were allowed for the first time to vote in a presidential election in 1964.

Does DC have home rule? Yes, it was granted home rule in 1973. However, Congress still must approve any DC law and the president must sign off on it. I am not a Joe Biden fan, but I think he is doing the right thing to veto DC’s changes to the crime bill. We need to get much tougher on violent crimes. I’m hoping now, that DC will finally do something about the crimes that are taking place on a regular basis, just like it is in other machine politics big cities.

There is another option that I see, that also doesn’t make DC a state, but might make it a lot more powerful and diverse than it is now. Here’s what I would do: Make all federal employees, federal retirees, military, and military retirees residents of DC regardless of where they live for voting and tax purposes. Roughly estimated, there are about 2 million federal employees, about 2 million living federal retirees, about 2 million active duty military, and about the same with military retirees. That’s about 8-9 million people. The population would be similar to Virginia, giving the residents of DC 13 instead of 3 electoral votes. There would also be quite a diverse politic among DC’s residents when you add active-duty enlisted military, who vote mostly Republican, and continue to vote Republican after retirement. Even though it’s not a state, Washington, DC could end up being the ultimate “swing state,” even though it isn’t one.

This would require changes to the Soldiers And Sailors Relief Act, in which active duty military can remain residents of their home of record, while they are serving on active duty; during my 26-year military career, I remained a resident of Connecticut, even though I had lived in New Jersey, Washington, DC, and for most of my adult life, in Maryland. When I retired from the Air Force in 2003, rather than moving back to my home of record, Connecticut, I stayed put in the house I had purchased in 1982 and became a resident of Maryland. I did feel a slight twinge of nostalgia when I surrendered my Connecticut driver’s license at MVA, in exchange for a Maryland one. Under my plan, I would have automatically become a resident of the District Of Columbia the moment I was sworn into active duty, and I would still be a DC resident since I am retired military collecting a United States Government retirement check, even though I have lived, and continue to live in Maryland, since 1982.

The District was set aside originally, as the seat of the federal government, and a place to live for those that worked for that government. “Taxation Without Representation,” say the license plates. We’ll get to that later.

What about the schools? Since tax money will be involved, with the states filled with both active and retired federal personnel, in and out of uniform, slated to lose some serious state income tax revenues, the question is going to come up about having DC residents sending their kids to suburban schools, while they are not residents of those suburban areas for tax purposes. DC would negotiate an agreeable rate that it would pay to the various states and territories for the DC residents’ children’s education. What would be even better, would be for education vouchers that could be used in any of the public, parochial, or independent private schools. The parents would get a voucher in June, so they have time either to continue keeping their kid in the current school, switch to another school public or private, or homeschool. This would not just apply to DC residents. Education vouchers should be nationwide, giving parents a lot more control over their children’s educations. I am a huge fan of school choice and the establishment of highly specialized schools both in science and technology, and in the arts and humanities too.

Getting back to taxes, here’s a possible first compromise. There is a possibility that this could be enough of a compromise, at least for a while: residents of DC don’t pay any federal income tax. That ends the argument about taxation without representation. The only taxes you will pay are toward your local government, so you just might want to vote more like adults. Of course, I’m not holding my breath.