# Should DC get a voice in Congress? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [September 14, 2009, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-dc-get-a-voice-in-congress/510083 "2009-09-14T20:46:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/96bed5/32.png) [@Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patty_O_Furniture)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2009, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-dc-get-a-voice-in-congress/510083/61 "2009-09-20T00:26:34Z")
> [@Aw\_Hamburgers](#): > > Way to ring in the welcome wagon. Well this subject is really starting to frost my shorts. You may notice many of the pro-DC posters in previous threads are not even bothering to return to new threads on this subject any more. Partly because the “Don’t like it? Move somewhere else” line keeps being offered up time and again with a straight face. If that becomes an acceptable solution to any jurisdictional injustice, then the battle isn’t even worth fighting any more. ---
**Author:** ![UltraVires](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecccb3/32.png) [@UltraVires](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UltraVires)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2009, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-dc-get-a-voice-in-congress/510083/62 "2009-09-20T19:28:42Z")
> [@Patty\_O\_Furniture](#): > > Well this subject is really starting to frost my shorts. You may notice many of the pro-DC posters in previous threads are not even bothering to return to new threads on this subject any more. Partly because the “Don’t like it? Move somewhere else” line keeps being offered up time and again with a straight face. If that becomes an acceptable solution to any jurisdictional injustice, then the battle isn’t even worth fighting any more. But D.C. is unique in that it has no natural existence. It is a pure creation of the Constitution and established only as a seat of government for the United States. The whole city. It was nothing but a swamp but for a proactive search for a spot where the capital could be placed. In other words, unless you are an employee of the national government, stay where you are. This policy was established in 1789. Why, more than 220 years later, are inhabitants feigning injustice over the long-established fact that they have no representation in Congress? In fact, why did anyone without a home state connection move there to begin with? And knowing all of this, why do they keep acting like they are a state? ---
**Author:** ![Belowjob2.0](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Belowjob2.0](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Belowjob2.0)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2009, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-dc-get-a-voice-in-congress/510083/63 "2009-09-20T19:35:57Z")
give it all back to MD. Move the Federal govt. operations to the Chicago area - to all the north lake shore towns. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Tao\_s\_Revenge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/73ab20/32.png) [@The\_Tao\_s\_Revenge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Tao_s_Revenge)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2009, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-dc-get-a-voice-in-congress/510083/64 "2009-09-20T21:59:30Z")
> [@Captain\_Amazing](#): > > I don’t agree with you. Congressional representation isn’t a fundamental civil right. It’s a civil right the people of the states enjoy. People living in DC don’t have it, people living in US territories don’t have it, Americans living abroad don’t have it. > > There is a principle at stake, and that principle is that the United States is a federation of states. Do people living abroad, or in US territories pay federal tax? I believe the principle being violated here is “no taxation without representation”. Here’s my solution, give them a vote in the federal government, or stop taxing them by it. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2009, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-dc-get-a-voice-in-congress/510083/65 "2009-09-20T23:16:50Z")
I live abroad and I have congressional representation through my home in California. I’m registered for absentee votes and I vote. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2009, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-dc-get-a-voice-in-congress/510083/66 "2009-09-21T03:51:36Z")
> [@The\_Tao\_s\_Revenge](#): > > Do people living abroad, or in US territories pay federal tax? I believe the principle being violated here is “no taxation without representation”. > > Here’s my solution, give them a vote in the federal government, or stop taxing them by it. Answered already as to the territories (they either aren’t technically, or are but it’s returned to the local treasury, but there’s no legal impediment that they could not just be taxed for the federal treasury) and as to how legally binding is that slogan (not at all). And US citizens abroad ARE generally liable for federal income tax. And part of the matter is that the “government” of DC does not have even the emasculated sovereignty of the other federal sub-units. It’s merely an entity that Congress sets up to administer the day-to-day and is entirely subordinate to Congress. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-dc-get-a-voice-in-congress/510083.md?page=3)