# Can President Obama move the American capitol? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [January 10, 2009, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-president-obama-move-the-american-capitol/480680 "2009-01-10T16:42:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![The\_Controvert](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dec6dc/32.png) [@The\_Controvert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Controvert)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2009, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-president-obama-move-the-american-capitol/480680/1 "2009-01-10T16:42:43Z")
Suppose he wanted new national capitol, Usa, is constructed in the middle of the United States. It is shaped like the United States, with a similarly shaped capitol building. Would he be able to do it? ---
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2009, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-president-obama-move-the-american-capitol/480680/2 "2009-01-10T16:45:01Z")
No he couldn’t, it would be one of the most expensive vanity projects in history and would cost trillions of dollars. He would be opposed at all levels. ---
**Author:** ![Tracy\_Lord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@Tracy\_Lord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tracy_Lord)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2009, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-president-obama-move-the-american-capitol/480680/3 "2009-01-10T16:46:59Z")
The capitol building is shaped like the United States? I’m not going to lie, that would be pretty awesome. **mswas** , consider: it would create jobs, wouldn’t it? ---
**Author:** ![BJMoose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/5fc32e/32.png) [@BJMoose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BJMoose)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2009, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-president-obama-move-the-american-capitol/480680/4 "2009-01-10T16:56:27Z")
Nah. Congress would have to be involved, if only to finance the scheme. ---
**Author:** ![Terrifel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c68b51/32.png) [@Terrifel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terrifel)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2009, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-president-obama-move-the-american-capitol/480680/5 "2009-01-10T16:57:28Z")
I’m pretty sure moving the Capitol would require an act of Congress; so he couldn’t do it by himself, though no doubt he could exert his unearthly hypnotic powers to sway Congress to do his bidding. Lord knows, Presidents have hoodwinked Congress into stupider acts. > [@](#): > > It is shaped like the United States, with a similarly shaped capitol building. Demented! I love the idea of a political entity deliberately shaped like a larger political entity. And the Capitol would be at the center! The roof of the Capitol could even be landscaped to look like a miniature United States, so if you tried to look at it with Google Maps it’d cause your monitor to implode. Presumably the front doors of the Capitol would be at the Mexican border, hyak hyack. And Florida could be the bathrooms. ---
**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2009, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-president-obama-move-the-american-capitol/480680/6 "2009-01-10T17:00:03Z")
**Moderator’s Note:** I can’t really seeing this turn into much of a debate here, so why don’t you just stick with [one of the](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=501139) [other two threads](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=501141) you’ve started on this topic this morning. 😕