Discrimination without Representation
This is hilarious to me. DC is allowing gay couples married in other states and now living in the District to file joint tax returns, although not promising that they will be recognized. Not great, but a step in the right direction nonetheless.
Today, the Washington Post reports that Kansas Sen. Sam Brownback (R), the new chairman of the Senate Appropriations subcommittee on the District is threatening DC Mayor Anthony Williams with budgetary retaliation if gay couples are allowed to file jointly. So, let's review. DC is not allowed to have voting representatives in Congress. Congress is allowed to allocate DC's budget and taxation. Now, DC wants to do the right thing and give its citizens equal civil rights and is therefore being threatened by Congress, who has unleveraged power over the city, with monetary retaliation.
Just stinks of bribery and coersion, doesn't it? DC is Democratic. Congress is controlled by Republicans. Allowing DC to have representation would throw the balance. So, NOT ONLY are Republicans denying DC representation in fear of losing power, but they're also abusing the power they already have and denying DC autonomous rights to treat its citizens fairly.
HOW IS THIS A DEMOCRACY?
Today, the Washington Post reports that Kansas Sen. Sam Brownback (R), the new chairman of the Senate Appropriations subcommittee on the District is threatening DC Mayor Anthony Williams with budgetary retaliation if gay couples are allowed to file jointly. So, let's review. DC is not allowed to have voting representatives in Congress. Congress is allowed to allocate DC's budget and taxation. Now, DC wants to do the right thing and give its citizens equal civil rights and is therefore being threatened by Congress, who has unleveraged power over the city, with monetary retaliation.
Just stinks of bribery and coersion, doesn't it? DC is Democratic. Congress is controlled by Republicans. Allowing DC to have representation would throw the balance. So, NOT ONLY are Republicans denying DC representation in fear of losing power, but they're also abusing the power they already have and denying DC autonomous rights to treat its citizens fairly.
HOW IS THIS A DEMOCRACY?
posted by Katie at 1:00 PM
1 Comments:
Doing the right thing is impossible with Congressional Overlords. I live in the Washington, DC and we started a blog to highlight that over 500,000 people living in our city do not have Congressional Representation on Capital Hill. We pay taxes, fight in the Armed Forces, and serve on Federal Grand juries. However, due to a historical anachronism in the Constitution, our elected representative has no vote in Congress.
We formed a group, The Stamp Act Congress to spread the word about this injustice. Our main protest is to stamp money with our slogan, "Stamp out Taxation without Representation in Washington DC!" Its been a lot of fun to do, and we hope that if enough Americans realized DC should have a vote in Congress, it will happen. Please contact me if you want to help. We need all the help we can get!
Keep on bloggin!
Andy
andy@stampouttax.com
Stamp Act Congress
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