Rep. Tim Scott (R-SC)

Ahead of this afternoon’s protest on the Hill, it’s good to remind ourselves why having legislative and budgetary autonomy is so damn important for the District. For that, we turn to Rep. Tim Scott (R-SC), who was quoted in an article in The New York Times over the weekend regarding the issue:

Republican lawmakers say they tinker mostly because they can. “Because D.C. is primarily financially under Congressional oversight, I think people feel more empowered to specifically have input there more so than other states,” said Representative Tim Scott, a freshman from South Carolina who is on the Republican leadership slate in the House. “I don’t think there is much more to it than that.”

See how simple it is? Allow members of Congress to tinker with D.C. laws and budgets, and they will. Not because they need to, not because anyone here is clamoring for it — just because here we sit, stripped of the most basic right of being able to decide what laws the District passes and how it spends its money. (An interesting note: Scott is close to Rep. Trent Gowdy, another South Carolina Republican who recently became the head of one of the two committees that deals with the District.)

One can appreciate Scott’s honesty, but it’s depressing to know that so many of the country’s elected leaders operate based on this principle. At this rate, we’ll have to start locking away any cleaning supplies for fear that they’ll drink them because the containers are colorful.