lack equal voting rights. Its population exceeds 700,000, more than Wyoming’s and Vermont’s, and comparable to Delaware’s and Alaska’s. Washington’s citizens pay more per capita in federal income taxes than any state in the country and more in total federal income tax than 22 states. Our men and women in uniform fight and die for America.
Yet, we lack any senators or voting representative in the House of Representatives. Congress controls the city’s budget and can override our laws and withhold funds. As our license plate proclaims, we suffer “taxation without representation,” which violates our democratic rights and relegates residents to second-class citizenship.
Why does this injustice persist in the 21st century? Opponents of Washington statehood make specious legal arguments, claiming that the Constitution mandates complete federal authority over the district and thus precludes statehood. But the Constitution merely states that the federal enclave cannot exceed 10 square miles; it does not prohibit carving out a limited area for government buildings that remains under federal control, while making the rest of the district into a state.
The real reasons for opposition are more sinister: racism and political interest. Washington was long predominantly black, and efforts to deny its citizens their civil rights date back to Reconstruction. The black population is now just below 50 percent, and the city remains overwhelmingly Democratic.
Last month, Mr. Trump said the quiet part out loud. “D.C. will never be a state,” he told The New York Post: “They want to do that so they pick up two automatic Democrat — you know it’s 100 percent Democrat, basically — so why would the Republicans ever do that?”
Washington has fulfilled the prerequisites for statehood under the “Tennessee Plan,” the same formula that admitted seven states to the union.'
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