College of Political Knowledge

Subject:  American Government

Do you remember from American history class the slogan or the rallying cry or the war chat or……”No Taxation Without Representation”?  What does it really mean?

A situation in which a government imposes taxes on a particular group of its citizens, despite the citizens not consenting or having an actual representative deliver their views when the taxation decision was made. This situation was one of the triggering events that spurred the original thirteen American colonies to revolt against the British Empire.

In the 1750 and 1760’s it was a cry against the British Empire by the American colonists….in essence the colones were pissed that they had to pay taxes to the realm and had NO representation in Parliament……that they were denied their rights under English law….well it pretty much lead to the American Revolution….and we all know how that ended……even is used today…most notably by the Tea Party when they were protesting taxes that they did not want to see raised…..even though those taxes were NEVER intended to go up……..

We could make the same argument today…places like Puerto Rico, Guam and others are basically colonies of the US, but we had rather call them “territories”….they pay taxes and have NO representation in Congress….oh, they have observers but NO power to vote for laws and such…..that is disgusting in itself (that may well be another post….later)

But I want to talk about another miscarriage of justice, if you will……Washington D.C…..the capital of the US….the people living within the confines of the Federal district…..do NOT have representation in the Congress…..oh, they also have an observer but they have NO right to vote on legislation even when it applies the them directly……

The US Constitution grants congressional voting representation to the states, which the District is not. The District is a federal territory ultimately under the complete authority of Congress. The lack of voting representation in Congress for residents of the U.S. capital has been an issue since the foundation of the federal district. Numerous proposals have been introduced to change this situation including legislation and constitutional amendments to grant D.C. residents voting representation, returning the district to the state of Maryland, and making the District of Columbia into a new state. All proposals have been met with political or constitutional challenges; therefore, there has been no change in the District’s representation in the Congress.

Basically, it is that American citizens, who pay their taxes that support the state, have NO representation, voting representation, in the legislative body of the country……so it is easy……give them representation or let them be tax exempt…..an easy solution, well, two solutions…..there should be NO American citizen without voting representation in Congress…these citizens do not have the same rights as you do….and that is a travesty!