Political Quotes

“on DC statehood, another matter, today the House of Representatives will pass a bill granting the District of Columbia official statehood. I applaud my House Democratic colleagues for taking this important step toward recognizing the full citizenship of more than 700,000 residents of the District of Columbia. This is a matter of just representation. Our system of government is designed to give everyone in our country a voice in forging their own destiny. Most citizens do that by voting for Members of Congress and Senators from their States to represent them in this temple of democracy to advocate for their interests and to voice their concerns. The District of Columbia has more residents than Vermont and Wyoming and nearly the same as Delaware, Alaska, and several other States, and they bear the full responsibilities and duties of citizenship, like residents in all those other States. DC residents can be summoned for jury duty. They have served in every war since the American Revolution. They pay Federal income taxes, just like residents from every other State. You can learn that from any license plate outside this building. Yet they are denied real representation in Congress--in the words DC borrowed from the Founding Fathers, ``taxation without representation.'' Sadly, the debate over DC statehood has taken a rather dark turn.…”