May 14, 2007
Senate Hearing on Voting Rights Tomorrow
After a rocky road through the U.S. House of Representatives, legislation granting the District a voting seat in the lower chamber will get its first hearing before a Senate committee tomorrow -- and pretty much everyone and their mother is set to testify.
In a hearing scheduled to start at 10 a.m. before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, eight witnesses will discuss the legislation that was passed in the House on April 19. A first panel will include testimony by Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), Rep. Tom Davis (R-Va.), Mayor Adrian Fenty and D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton. A second panel will feature former vice-presidential candidate Jack Kemp; Wade Henderson, president of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights; Viet Dinh, a professor at the Georgetown University Law Center and former Bush administration official; and Jonathan Turley, a professor at The George Washington University Law School. Legislation sponsor Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) will preside over the hearing.
The folks at D.C. Vote have asked that supporters of District voting rights attend the hearing, but if you're unable to do so, fear not -- we'll be recapping the testimony throughout the day tomorrow.
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More importantly, where do I get that shirt? dcvote.org didn't have it.
Why don't we argue the other side of "No taxation without Representation" and push to remove federal taxes from the District much like Puerto Rico?
David - That's a canard. PR residents do pay federal taxes. See wikipedia.
Politburo:
Don't trust Wikipedia without following the sources they provide and checking their veracity.
www.doi.gov/oia/Islandpages/prpage. htm
"Although Puerto Ricans do not pay Federal taxes on income received from island sources, they do pay customs taxes paid to the Federal treasury but these revenues are returned to the Commonwealth."
http welcome.topuertorico.org/government .shtml
then read the end of the second paragraph.
my links were not allowed in the post so I changed them around so they would pass muster.
they should be easy enough to figure out.
Memebership of the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs:
Joseph I. Lieberman Chairman (ID), (CT) Susan M. Collins Ranking Member (ME), Carl Levin (MI), Ted Stevens (AK), Daniel K. Akaka (HI), George V. Voinovich (OH), Thomas R. Carper (DE), Norm Coleman (MN), Mark L. Pryor (AR), Tom Coburn (OK), Mary L. Landrieu (LA), Pete V. Domenici (NM), Barack Obama (IL), John Warner (VA), Claire McCaskill (MO), John E. Sununu (NH), Jon Tester (MT).
Start bugging friends and relations in committee members' states to urge their senators to get with the DC vote program. If you have any ideas (other than using a possible veto as an excuse for your personal inaction) why not post them here?
David,
I think your idea is a GREAT one. I'm total agreement that without representation, the residents of DC shouldn't have to pay Federal taxes... this is coming from someone in California, by the way.
Puerto Rico and the other US Territories have complicated tax laws that go back to the original compacts signed with the US. However, while their overall federal tax burden is lower than DCs, their share of federal spending is a pittance. Benefits like SSI, Medicaid, TANF, etc are either not extended to the territories or are capped at levels that make them nearly worthless.
If you want to somebody get real angry real quick, bring up the issue of Medicaid Disproportionate Share Payments with a hospital administrator in San Juan. It won't be pretty.
John and David:
If DC became a tax haven on the US mainland, it would be the home of the super-rich overnight. The merely rich couldn't afford to live here anymore.
Mike:
It wouldn't have to be that way... and if in fact more wealthy people moved to the District, think of ALL of the revitalization that could occur there!