Continuing the discussion from How oppressive were the British taxes on the American colonies?:
Rather than hijacking the FQ thread above I figured to move it.
To the question, people under 18 and felons leap to mind. Anyone else taxed without representation? Is it against the law in the US anywhere?
Some people are saying that tariffs are a tax on the American consumer. I don’t recall congress passing a bill on tariffs.
This any tariff, not just the one most people are thinking about. So lets not get into the politics please. But I believe the POTUS can declare one without a congressional act.
Acts of Congress not being well publicized doesn’t mean that they’re done without representation.
I believe the POTUS can declare a tariff under an executive order. Part of his abilty to negotiate treaties.
All of the residents of Washington, D.C.
Washington, DC. It’s on our license plates.
The President can negotiate treaties, but they still need to be ratified by Congress. And imposing a tariff isn’t a treaty, anyway: If it were, no country would ever agree to one.
They all claim it, yes. Doesn’t make it true.
They’re taxed without representation.
Residents of Guam, DC, American Samoa, and and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands have delegates in the US House of Representatives that can only vote at the committee level. Residents of those areas pay some federal taxes, but not Federal income tax.
What about Puerto Rico?
Same situation with PR as far as I can tell with respect to taxes. PR is different than the others in that they have a resident commissioner in the House, instead of a delegate like the others. What difference that makes, I don’t know.
It’s literally true. DC citizens have no elected voting representation in Congress, neither in the House nor the Senate, but (unlike residents of PR and other US territories) they are subject to the federal income tax.
I paid federal income tax as a Washingtonian.
You’re wrong about DC, residents of DC definitely pay the Federal income tax.
If they didn’t, every rich American would move to DC.
That’s the point. You paid taxes but have no representative in congress.
The difference being that they vote for the President so there is representation in one branch of the government.
I was responding to the claim made that DC residents don’t pay federal income tax. It was in the part of the post I quoted.
That’s true, but DC residents still have no representation for Congress, which has authority over DC local administration (they can and sometimes do overrule the DC elected local government).
Famously, in the 90s, DC had a referendum in legalizing medical marijuana and Congress refused to allow us to count the votes.
But still more governmental representation than all of the other non-states that can’t even vote for the President.