Obama On D.C. Statehood: 'I'm For It'

[alp227]

Source: WAMU (Washington, DC Public Radio)

For the first time since he took office, President Barack Obama has come out in favor of making Washington, D.C. the nation's 51st state.

"I’m in D.C., so I’m for it," he said of D.C. statehood during an event in Washington today. "I've been for it for quite some time. I've long believed that folks in D.C. pay taxes like everybody else. They contribute to the overall well-being of the country like everybody else. They should be represented like everybody else."

Since moving into the White House in 2009, Obama has expressed support for congressional representation for D.C. residents and defended the city's right to craft its own laws and spend its own money. Last week, Obama issued a veto threat on a spending bill over Republican efforts to stop the city from implementing a marijuana decriminalization law.

But he has remained quiet on the issue of statehood, and during his first term opted not to use the city's "Taxation Without Representation" license plates on his presidential limo. He was also criticized in 2011 for agreeing to a Republican demand that prohibited D.C. from spending local and federal funds on abortions for low-income women.

Read more: http://wamu.org/news/14/07/21/obama_on_dc_statehood_im_for_it

[BlueStreak]

1. Dems should be for that, and for the breakup of California

There were some messages last week about a GOP plan to break California into a bunch of smaller states. I say, "Bring it on". We get 2 senators for each state. It is ridiculous for California to have the same voting power in the Senate as California or New York. If California were 6 states, we'd probably have at least 9 of the 12 Senators, which would be a net gain of 4.

We should press for real representation of DC. That would be 2 easy Senate seats right there.

[yurbud]

5. I think California should have as many votes as California.

[BlueStreak]

19. I meant Montana, sorry.

[yurbud]

23. ah! that makes more sense.

[MoonchildCA]

12. I respectfully disagree.

I think it's an all out effort to split our electoral votes, making it pretty difficult for democrats to win the presidency. Especially with red states being winner take all.

[JI7]

16. nope, it would mean a bunch more low population red states with overrepresentation

and only a few blue states with large population and lower representation compared to the red states.

[BlueStreak]

21. No, you have that backwards.

Dems typically win California and New York by 10-20%. If those states were divided into, say, Iowa-sized units, most of those new states would still have a Dem majority. Yes, the San Joaquin valley would probably be Republican, but that wouldn't necessarily be a state because the population in the valley is relatively small. San Diego would be a state. Los Angeles might be two states. San Fran might be a state and Silicon valley might be another state. And north of the bay might be another stage and Sacramento yet another.

My point is simply that the Republicans were threatening this. That is like threatening impeachment. The best response is "Bring it on."

[BlueStreak]

22. And if you don't like that idea, then we should push to combine red states

We don't need separate states for Montana, Idaho, North Dakota and South Dakota. That should be one big state with 2 senators and a handful of Congressmen. Likewise for Kansas, Nebraska, and Oklahoma. And so on.

[Hekate]

24. It could backfire: there's a very large conservative streak in California

The inland counties tend to be very conservative, and then there's Orange County, likewise conservative. California gifted the nation with presidents Nixon and Reagan, and we've had some wowsers of Republican governors.

Aside from that, splitting the state up that way would create administrative and fiscal havoc. It's highly unlikely to be approved.

[yuiyoshida]

25. I am NOT for

The breakup of California. I love this state as it is.

[KamaAina]

34. I'm not at all sure about that

Some of the "Six States", like Central California, Border, and believe it or not, Weed (the part east of the Coast Range) are pretty doggone Red.

[n2doc]

2. More people live in DC than live in Wyoming

And it has about the same population as Vermont. Taxation without representation must end.

[MatthewStLouis]

27. Yes, D.C. deserves representation!

No taxation without representation! Democrats have the high ground on the D. C. statehood issue, it's a win-win scenario.

Frame it as a "it's time for D.C. to take responsibility for itself" and a "no taxation without representation" issue and the republicans won't have anything but a shameless political argument for "balance".

Of course, I also think it may be more logical to let Maryland or Virginia annex D. C. but where's the fun in that?!

[jakeXT]

3. Just avoid 69

Mathematical Model Shows What Future Flags Would Look Like as U.S. Grows
http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2010-06/how-preserve-symmetry-star-spangled-banner

[jaysunb]

4. 2 more Democratic Senators ?

I like it.....

[yurbud]

6. We are back to the pre-Civil War stand off when every new state stirred up the slave or free debate

DC will probably only get statehood if the GOP can figure out some way to break up a red state and get two extra senators to balance out DC.

I don't know where there's a big enough geographic concentration of cranky old white people who miss the days of Jim Crow.

[Swede Atlanta]

7. I would support an arrangement where DC is treated as a state

in terms of having representation in Congress and being able to order it's own affairs without Congress.

I am torn on statehood. Yes the population is greater than Wyoming (where I was born and raised) but I'm just not sure if it rises to the level of statehood.

The egalitarian streak in me says full statehood whereas the pragmatic self says it doesn't quite feel like a state.

[fishwax]

10. OT, but where in Wyoming, Swede Atlanta?

I lived a while in Sheridan County, myself

[Recursion]

13. Early in DC's history residents could vote

Residents of (as it was then organized) the city of Washington, Washington County, Georgetown, and Alexandria County were for purposes of enumeration and Congressional voting considered residents of Maryland or Virginia as appropriate. I'd be OK with that, too, though I'm not sure MD would want it...

[Igel]

15. Return most of it to MD.

That's where it came from. Leave a core that's still under Congress, but has few inhabitants. Perhaps none, apart from representatives.

Problem solved. MD allows for cities to be independent. Baltimore City is not part of Baltimore County.

They'd get voting rights for all things federal. And even state. And city.

Without a huge political fight. Except that the political fight would be either from those who insist on the additional state for political advantage or those in MD that don't want DC's population added to the MD demographics.

[Codeine]

35. I was raised in Wyoming as well.

Rock Springs and Eden (doesn't live up to the name, incidentally.)

[warrant46]

37. Maybe a Vibrant Resident like Marion Barry could become a Senator

When Barry was videotaped smoking crack cocaine and arrested by FBI officials on drug charges. The arrest and subsequent trial precluded Barry seeking re-election, and Barry served six months in a federal prison. After his release, however, he was elected to the DC city council in 1992 and ultimately returned to the mayoralty in 1994, serving from 1995 to 1999.

Despite his history of political and legal controversies, Barry remains a popular and influential figure in the local political scene of Washington, D.C. The Washington Post has stated that "to understand the District of Columbia, one must understand Marion Barry

[IronLionZion]

38. Dude has support in just one part of the district

which is the area east of the Anacostia river. They love him there and someone did give him a kidney.

About 2/3 of the district won't give him the time of day let alone any votes.

[Sunlei]

8. interesting. read recently Pres. O said he wants to live in DC after he is done. This may be why!

[IronLionZion]

9. DO it! and Puerto Rico too

to keep it even, if that's an issue.

[warrant46]

28. You Forgot Afghanistan

[IronLionZion]

29. and Iraq apparently

[warrant46]

36. See Post 17

Always room for more Stars

[Action_Patrol]

11. Not cromulent

I can't back this even though I live here. The Residence Act put the District together from land ceded from VA and MD (although VA possibly unconstitutionally took theirs back).
DC doesn't want to be MD even though it was originally part of it.
It's not a state. It's a Federal District. It just gets dirty when you start picking it apart.

[truthisfreedom]

17. What's the flag gonna look like?

[Historic NY]

18. But but but....they're

[DonCoquixote]

20. many people in Northern VA

aka the Dc suburbs would love to be their own state as well. VA takes all of their tax money, but spends it on RED state areas that hate them..Combine DC with Northern VA, ad we have somethign backed by precedent, when West Va decided they had enough of Richmond.

[MADem]

26. I have to agree with him--DC gets screwed, and pushed around by Congress.

Of course, Congress will never agree to it--it would put a few more Dems in the Congress, and they can't have THAT, now, can they?

[Aristus]

30. I think DC should have a vote in Congress.

But I'm not sure about the statehood issue. Washington DC was formed in order to be the Federal District and capital of the US so that no one state could claim the capital city.

We should keep it that way, but definitely let DC have a vote in Congress.

[Action_Patrol]

31. I chooChooChoose you

At the expense of whose congressional seat? There's 435 of them. Do you take from MD?
There's no easy solution.

[Aristus]

32. There isn't. That's why I'm keeping an open mind on the subject.

Why can't DC have a Congressional seat created for it?

DC residents ought to have a say in how their taxes are spent, when and if their sons and daughters go to war, etc.

Welcome to DU.

[Action_Patrol]

33. Thanks for the welcome.

It's clear that law can be changed but for over a hundred years, the law has set the number as fixed at 435. The voting seat would have to come at some other states expense.
The other option would be to have md do what VA did but then we are agreeing with Louie Gohmert, and going against the original wishes of the founders.
Ugh. Gohmert. Going to go take a kerosene shower.