From: slothman	Date: March 9th, 2009 06:16 pm (UTC)		(Permanent Entry Link)

I’m with you on “no taxation without representation”, but we may need to debug the Constitution in order to fix the problem.

	From: lbmango	Date: March 9th, 2009 06:32 pm (UTC)		(Permanent Entry Link)

Well, now the whole thing isn't going to pass because the NRA is going to stick something on there that repeals gun-control in DC, including assault weapons.

Justwhat DC needs, more assault weapons.

	From: lbmango	Date: March 9th, 2009 08:17 pm (UTC)		(Permanent Entry Link)
	ALSO

alternatively, we could just not tax them.

From: puppybrother	Date: March 12th, 2009 01:03 am (UTC)		(Permanent Entry Link)

Amusingly, my mother grew up in Southeast. In other words, the racial mix in DC has not always been overwhelmingly black. I couldn't find enough of a history on DC statehood pre-home rule to make an informed decision, so I can't say if it only got really rolling this century or what.

Personally, I favor retrocession to Maryland, which would greatly reduce a lot of DC's overhead, and likely result in at least one more House seat for Maryland with the additional population. Of course, Maryland would whine about that, even if we told them they could turn the Mall into a racetrack and slots location. This also doesn't result in the guaranteed two extra Senate seats that the Democrats would get. So, this is likely a non-starter.

The best alternative would be to go the Commonwealth route and have DC residents, er, Commonwealth of Columbia residents not pay federal taxes, same as Puerto Rico or Guam. That removes that whole Taxation Without Representation thing.

Of course, then I'd remove the funds that DC gets from the federal gummint for maintenance, and just treat them as any other entity. So, the Commonwealth would have no choice but to raise taxes to make up for it, possibly up to or above what Federal taxes are now, which would prove a very interesting experiment.