District of Columbia Taxation Without Representation
Floor Speech
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Ms. NORTON. Mr. Speaker, yesterday, I began a series of remarks leading up to tomorrow, Emancipation Day, in the District of Columbia, when Lincoln and the Congress freed the slaves in the District 9 months ahead of the Emancipation Proclamation.
There are no slaves living in the District today, nor is there a single free and equal citizen living in your Nation's Capital. Freedom from slavery did not give residents freedom as equal citizens.
During yesterday's remarks in this series, I spoke about D.C. residents going to war, to every war since the Nation was created, without ever having a vote. Today's remarks fit today, April 15, the day when D.C. residents will be the only Americans who pay Federal taxes without a vote for or against those taxes or anything else. For us, it is not tax day; it is taxation without representation day.
It is no overstatement to say that this House is obsessed with taxes, that is to say, tax cuts. There are tax cut bills on the floor this very week. Our residents are not demanding tax cuts--take the money--but they are demanding the rights that go with the taxes they pay.
We want an end to no vote on this floor; an end to local matters coming to Congress without a vote on this floor; an end to D.C.'s local budget, of all matters, coming to Congress, even though there is not one dime of Federal money in it, only local money.
We want an end to every Member getting a vote on District matters that come to this floor except the Member who represents the District of Columbia. We want an end to this mountainload of injustice, and that comes with statehood.
The best way to see the injustice of paying taxes without representation is to compare D.C. residents and what taxes they pay with what other Americans pay. Look at who pays the highest taxes in the United States of America, D.C. residents--this is per capita, my friends--compared to who pays the lowest, Mississippi. What is that, a third of what D.C. residents pay?
The two largest States in the Union, New York and California--New York taxpayers pay a little more than $8,700 per capita, California a little more than $8,000 per capita--both compared to our $12,000 per capita. Southern States average between the $4,000 and $5,000 per capita range. The Midwest states average in the $6,000 range. Ohio is $6,130. Iowa is $6,019.
Even States with many wealthy taxpayers, like Virginia and Florida, are within the $7,000 tax range, but D.C.--650,000 residents--pays $12,000 per resident. Find your State on my Web site. You will not find one state paying what District of Columbia residents pay.
Today is April 15, and nobody enjoys paying taxes, but we believe that the constituents of my colleagues will join the moral outrage of my constituents when they learn that D.C. residents are not only paying more federal taxes per capita than any other Americans, but that added up, this amounts to more dollars than 24 of our States are paying, all with representation.
D.C. residents pay more than their full freight to support the United States Government. The time is overdue to permit D.C. citizens to join the Union of States as the State of New Columbia, the 51st State of the Union.
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