All Americans that are taxed by our government are represented in Congress, right?
Wrong.
Washington, D.C., residents have been taxed for more than 200 years but have never been afforded voting representation in Congress.
Recent proposed legislation would remedy this situation with a bi-partisan compromise, increasing the number of congressional representatives that Utah has from three to four, while also giving Washington, D.C., something that it’s never had before–democratic voting representation in Congress.
This would be a good thing for Utahns, as well as Washington, D.C., residents.
This month, I was able to participate in a one-week intensive academic experience in Washington, D.C., through the Hinckley Institute of Politics Capitol Encounter seminar.
While there, I saw hundreds of vehicle license plates issued from D.C., all with the same slogan on them: “Taxation Without Representation.”
This slogan utters one of the main grievances of the American colonists, who coined the saying during the Revolutionary War. This was one of the reasons why they felt justified going to war–because they were taxed but not given parliamentary representation by the British. The American colonists saw this as unjust and unfair and went to war, sacrificing their lives for that and other ideals.
Ironically, Washington, D.C., has been paying taxes since the district’s creation more than 200 years ago, and has never had congressional representation for its taxpayers.
In this way, have we as Americans become one of the very things we fought so hard to defeat–an unfair taskmaster, taxing our citizens but denying them their say in their federal government? As things stand now, it would appear so.
America is currently treating Washington, D.C., just as 18th-century England treated America.
No matter what happens with this bill, whether Utah will have three or four representatives in 2007 or in 2010, it seems that Utah will eventually gain a fourth seat.
What Utahns should be mindful of is the unfairness of the situation and the interests of our fellow countrymen and -women who are paying taxes without federal representation in Washington, D.C.
Utah pays taxes, and Utah’s taxpayers are thus represented in Congress. That is how it has always been for our state. We take for granted the representation that our Revolutionary War ancestors fought with their lives to obtain. Yet we seem to forget that Washington, D.C., residents have been paying taxes since the district’s creation more than two hundred years ago, and have never had congressional representation.
But let’s also not forget the plight of Washington, D.C., residents at our benefit.
It seems that Utah will gain that representative and get its fourth seat in Congress at some point before 2010; it’s merely a matter of exactly when and how. Utah will have its day whether or not Washington, D.C., is granted a voting representative of its own.
Just as the early American colonists saw that being taxed while being denied a say in the affairs of their government was unfair, Utahns should also see the current situation of Washington, D.C.’s, residents as equally unfair. We, as Utahns, should put aside our desire to gain another representative as soon as possible and instead use our position to not only benefit ourselves and our state, but to work to correct a grave inequity by granting the residents of Washington, D.C., what our ancestors fought so hard to obtain–taxation only when afforded congressional representation.
