I think that is a nice conceit and in theory supposed to be the case but, in reality, they are beholden to their donors and that can be anyone or anything.
Most people under 18 do not pay income tax. And even tho they cant vote, they do have an elected representative. So, they have representation. The colonies had none. Remember, back in those days- a LOT of people couldnt vote- even in the UK. But they still had representation.
So, no taxation without representation doesnt mean not being able to vote.
Yes, Congress is the only body that can pass a tariff. trump got around that by using a bill (pass by Congress of course)-In early 2018 President Trump imposed tariffs on steel and aluminum imports under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962. This law states that the president can raise tariffs on imports that pose a threat to national security. Section 232 allows the President to implement these tariffs without the approval of Congress, following an investigation by the Department of Commerce.
https://yeutter-institute.unl.edu/who-has-authority-impose-tariffs-and-how-does-affect-international-trade
Only under a special act of Congress, see cite above.
Congress as a whole represents the DC, DC residents get to vote for President. DC does have a representative at Large.
Nope. They have a representative. They just dont get to vote.
This sentence is not wrong but it needs to be nitpicked.
The definition of alien is given here and is full of convolutions.
Alien is a legal term that refers to any person who is not a citizen or a national of the United States, as listed in the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA). There are different categories of aliens: resident and nonresident, immigrant and nonimmigrant, asylee and refugee, documented and undocumented.
According to the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), an alien is an individual who does not have U.S. citizenship and is not a U.S. national. The INA defines a national of the United States as one who, while not a citizen, owes permanent allegiance to the United States. One owes personal allegiance to the United States if that person has taken an oath of naturalization.
If I’m reading that correctly, people who have applied for citizenship are nationals and are no longer aliens. Both nationals and aliens are classes who cannot vote.
DC has a delegate in the House of Representatives (and no representation at all in the Senate). Four US territories – American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands and the U.S. Virgin Islands – each also have a delegate in the House. Puerto Rico has a resident commissioner, the only difference being that the resident commissioner is elected for four years versus two year terms for delegates.
But these delegates are not comparable to full U.S. Representatives. They are not allowed to vote on matters being considered by the full House. They are currently allowed to serve on and vote in committees, but that has not always been the case. But that gets at the fundamental disparity between delegates and full House members – the rights and privileges (and indeed existence) of delegates are subject to the whim of the governing majority in the House, while full U.S. Representatives participate in the body as a matter of Constitutional right.
So how many of them have responded to the concerns about paying federal taxes and said: “I think we should exempt the DC residents from paying federal income taxes”?
That is all true. But still, they have representation.
None. Because that is just silly . There is a move afloat to giove DC some votes in Congress, but obviously the current GOP congress wont pass that, as DC is deep, deep blue.
Because they can vote for someone in government means they have representation?
If they can vote for dog catcher that counts as representation?
Your first assertion quoted here is stunningly incorrect.
Why is this a problem for DC, but not state capitols, and every other nation’s capital in the world?
Can you name a single example of things going wrong in one of those places because of your concerns? Why is DC special?
Non voting representation is non functioning representation.
It’s like ‘separate but equal’ in reverse: it’s not that one doesn’t get to be there; it’s just about getting ‘nonentity’ treatment when it would matter!
Now this congressman represents DC:
“If you uphold systems of white supremacy, even if you do not consider yourself to be racist, you are engaging in racist activity,” Jones said Saturday during an interview with CNN. “There are 700,000 people in the District of Columbia—more than in the state of Wyoming and Vermont. And so the idea that we would disenfranchise, that we would tax them without representation—something we fought the Revolutionary War over, by the way—is unconscionable.”
“I have had enough of my colleagues’ racist insinuations that somehow the people of Washington DC are incapable or unworthy of our democracy,” the New York lawmaker told the House of Representatives on Thursday.
Mr Jones objected to remarks from Republican Senator Tom Cotton who said statehood would prevent the nation’s capital from being a “well-rounded working class state”.
“I had no idea there were so many syllables in the word ‘white’,” said Mr Jones, who is Black.
[hopeless outcry]
CapitAl both times
[/h o]
Fun fact: during the fall of Kabul I was frantically trying to get my Afghan colleagues on some of the last flights out and I called various congressional representatives offices for help and I was told that they wouldn’t help because I didn’t live in their districts. Some of my people died.
Heck, one could say that in “The Old Days” you had better presence part of the year because due to less efficient transportation at least the ones not from the East would have to stay in or close to DC during the session months.
Also as mentioned, many of them keep their pied-a-terre in Virginia or Maryland, anyway.
—-
The usual explanation for DC has been that while seated in Philadelphia, the Congress of the Confederation found the government of Pennsylvania often treating them like a pesky tenant and in at least one ocassion not providing protection in a civil disorder, so in the new Constitution the framers decided that their seat of government would be a separate entity that would be absolutely a ward of Congress — and, I suppose from their view, exist for no other purpose than to support the federal branches. Guess they never expected anyone other than transient officials, their employees, posted troops and 3/5th people to actually live there. (And, also, the new government under Washington provisionally moved to New York until the District could be launched.)
Ever since, Congresses R and D have never hesitated in flexing about this. Even under the current “Home Rule” law, Congress has an explicit assent power over DC internal legislation, which does not go into effect until a certain number of days pass w/o Congress objecting (Recently they did so for a DC law amending their penal code to reduce penalties. This is a power they do not have for, say, PR where they would instead need to pass an actual Act of Congress overriding ours.)
Thanks for clearing that point up, so basically congress gave up the requirement to approved tariffs in certain instances of national security. I would also note that Biden has done the same in regards to tariffs on Chinese electric cars which are heavily substidized and would have been a major threat to our automotive industry. And I actually agree with both tariffs.
Yes, Trump imposed the tariffs on Canadian steel after making a finding that Canadian steel posed a threat to US national security.
Nice to know that the U.S. views Canada as a threat to your national security.
People who haved applied for citizenship are just that: people who have applied for citizenship. Once naturalized, they are United States citizens. Residents of American Samoa are US nationals, not US citizens.
I’ll concede that the residents of DC have an incomplete, tenuous form of representation in one chamber of Congress. So if you count their elected mayor, delegate and presidential electors on one hand, versus the two senators they don’t have, doing the math that comes out to: for the purposes of representation, residents of DC count as 3/5 of a person. That sounds familiar somehow. . .
The whole trope of “representatives elected by other people will represent you” has a familiar sound to it.
Your owners will represent you.
Your landlords will represent you.
Your husbands and fathers will represent you.