Always eager to acquire by machinations what the Constitution and voters will not give them, Democrats reintroduced a bill on Jan. 28 to continue their long-running fight to give Washington, D.C., the status of a state, reports The New York Post.
The move is likely to be met with fierce opposition from Republicans, for it would make the District of Columbia the 51st state in the Union and give the “state” two senators and one House member in Congress.
Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution forbids the district from being a state, for also serving as the seat of national government would give such a state too much power over other states that do not control the whole nation.
That doesn’t matter to Democratic Sen. Tom Carper of Delaware, who introduced the bill. “This isn’t a Republican or Democratic issue; it’s an American issue because the lack of fair representation for D.C. residents is clearly inconsistent with the values on which this country was founded,” he said. D.C.’s Democratic mayor, Muriel Bowser, whose opinion is irrelevant, has also pushed for statehood.
DC’s majority Democratic residents pay federal taxes, leading to license plates with the slogan, “End Taxation Without Representation.”
In an Oval Office interview with The Post last year, former President Donald Trump said Republicans weren’t “stupid” enough to add guaranteed Democratic seats in Congress.
“D.C. will never be a state,” Trump said.
