[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 54 (Wednesday, April 15, 2015)]
[House]
[Page H2216]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
the District of Columbia (Ms. Norton) for 5 minutes.
  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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