Desperate to press any advantage they can find to maintain control of the House, and limit the Republican majority in the Senate, the Democrats have launched a futile bid for statehood for Washington D.C.
The Democrats that are behind the efforts say it is because “the people of the District of Columbia” lake representation in Congress. However, their motivation for statehood for D.C. couldn’t be more obvious. If it were to become the 51st state — Democrats would likely gain two new senators and one House representative — a reality which has played into the political motivations behind supporting or opposing the idea.
However, political agendas aside, Republicans oppose the measure because of concerns about reports of corruption and the scandals involving local officials that have rocked the District in recent months.
For example — Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan, the top Republican on the House Oversight and Reform Committee, said he wanted the hearing on the matter to delve into the ongoing scandal involving D.C. Councilman Jack Evans.
Evans resigned from his role as the chairman of the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority board this summer after an internal investigation determined that he failed to disclose a profitable conflict of interest.
“Sadly the allegations against Mr. Evans are just the latest in a series of local D.C. political scandals,” Jordan said, ticking off several former D.C. city officials embroiled in past scandals. “We cannot and should not ignore these unpleasant facts.”
However, Jordan said that Committee Democrats denied his request.
Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton, the sponsor of the D.C. statehood bill and the district’s non-voting House representative, pushed back against the argument.
“The allegations against Mr. Evans have nothing to do with D.C. statehood,” she said.
Not a Single Republican Supports Statehood for D.C.
The D.C. statehood bill has more than 200 co-sponsors and the support of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, both Democrats. No Republicans in Congress have signed on to the legislation.
The bill calls for districtwide elections of two senators and one House representative. It says all district territory would be included in the declaration, save for specific exclusions of federal buildings and monuments, such as the White House and the Capitol.
Democrats argued that statehood is needed because D.C. residents lack adequate representation in Congress.
“D.C. residents have all of the responsibilities of citizenship but they have no congressional voting rights and only limited self-government,” the Democratic committee chairman Rep. Elijah Cummings, of Maryland, said in a prepared statement, which was read by Holmes Norton at the hearing.
But, in opposition, the Republicans said that the framers of the Constitution intended for the nation’s capital to be a federal district.
“This is not what the Founding Fathers intended,” Jordan said. “They understood and they carefully crafted the Constitution so that the seat of the federal government would purposely and specifically not be within a state.”
Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, has vowed to oppose the statehood bill.
Speaking to Fox News’ Laura Ingraham this past summer, McConnell said Democrats want D.C. statehood so they can get “two new Democratic senators” and said “as long as I’m the majority leader of the Senate, none of that stuff is going anywhere.”
Now, if we could only trust Mitch McConnell to do what he says instead of falling in behind the progressive/socialists again as he has done before.
Washington D.C. statehood, besides being unconstitutional, is a crazy idea. It has no agriculture, no industry, no rural area — and only one urban area.
All the Democrats care about is power and they will do any thing to get and keep it.
You have to hand it to the Demorats…they keep coming up with ideas to bypass our political procedures. Let’s see: Do a whole bunch of gerrymandering updates, get ride of the Electoral College, change the number of justices on the Supreme Court, etc., etc. These people are a real hoot!
Just another example of disrespect for the Constitution by the demon-rat party.
Most stupid idea of the day. There is a pitched battle morning, noon, and night in this country. Why give any party a platform to claim ownership of the nation’s capital when WE THE PEOPLE are the owners and their boss.
I don’t support it either
WASHINGTON dc,D.C. is really really not a part of the UNITED STATES ! It really belongs to the CANADIAN’S . And that’s why WE THE PEOPLE don’t need to make it the 51 STATE in the UNION. ALASKA really doesn’t belong to the United States either.
And what have you been smoking Ron? DC belongs to Canada, and we don’t own Alaska, just who in the hell put those ideas in your head, which appears to be completely empty, plenty of room for conspiracy ideas?