Fwd: How DC statehood opponents see DC (it's almost funny)

[rbob.king]

Sent via the Samsung Galaxy S10, an AT&T 5G Evolution capable smartphone

-------- Original message --------

From: "rbob.king" <rbob...@comcast.net>

Date: 3/25/21 1:03 PM (GMT-05:00)

To: RBOB KING <RBOB...@COMCAST.NET>

Subject: Fwd: How DC statehood opponents see DC (it's almost funny)

Sent via the Samsung Galaxy S10, an AT&T 5G Evolution capable smartphone

-------- Original message --------

From: "rbob.king" <rbob...@comcast.net>

Date: 3/24/21 5:18 PM (GMT-05:00)

To: RBOB KING <RBOB...@COMCAST.NET>

Subject: Fwd: How DC statehood opponents see DC (it's almost funny)

Sent via the Samsung Galaxy S10, an AT&T 5G Evolution capable smartphone

-------- Original message --------

From: "Theodora H. Brown" <thbrow...@msn.com>

Date: 3/24/21 7:41 AM (GMT-05:00)

To: "King Robert "Bob"" <rbob...@comcast.net>

Subject: Fwd: How DC statehood opponents see DC (it's almost funny)

Just sharing Ann Loikow’s expert  response to an anti-statehood resident in Ward 3. 

Theo 

Theodora H. Brown

Begin forwarded message:

From: "A.Loikow" <alo...@icloud.com>
Date: March 23, 2021 at 11:50:34 PM EDT
Subject: How DC statehood opponents see DC (it's almost funny)



Here is a post from the Cleveland Park listerv to which I responded. The original post is first and my response (rather long) follows. I’ve also included my response on the issue of retrocession to Maryland, which she subsequently asked.

Ann

_____________________________

Re: How DC statehood opponents see DC (it's almost funny) 
From: Stephanie
Date: Tue, 23 Mar 2021 09:04:37 PDT 

I oppose statehood, but I want DC to have voting representation in the House of Representatives because membership in the House is based on population. If the city wants to enjoy full statehood, that is, be part of a diverse voting entity, it should rejoin Maryland.  

My specific reasons against DC statehood are:

 

1. It would be setting a precedent to establish city states henceforth. Both NYC and LA, for example, could attempt to become states and free themselves of the strictures of Albany and Sacramento, respectively. City states would officially set urban citizens against non-urban citizens, where there is already a conflict in the US in that regard. DC would not be dealing with pesky non-urban matters. 

 

2. In the same way that DC deals only with urban life, its biggest employers are non-profits such as hospitals and universities, inter alia, and it does not have to balance rural, manufacturing, and other diverse sectors. (Thus blowing off the hinterland denizens who have to meet a payroll. Although the hinterland pays taxes.)

 

3. DC is already a one-party bloc, aka autocracy. Neither national party should be "given" two senators. And we know which party won't even have to get out of bed to capture the seats. (I do not belong to a political party.)

 

4. Expanded bureaucracy! It's already inefficient and mostly incompetent in DC, but left unchecked will turn the city into a banana republic. The feds now are "in loco governorus," keeping DC in check. 

 

5. The path to statehood will take many years and court battles! DC will lose federal subsidies, and huge parts of DC, such as the off-limits federal bits, will not generate taxes to make up for the loss. At the same time, the federal presence will require more DC expenditure, and DC's budget will suffer. Goodbye to progressive causes, unsupported. 

 

Outside the beltway, DC is criticized for being a place where the rubber doesn't meet the road. If people in DC want statehood now, move to MD or VA. The services are better.

________________

From: "A. Loikow" <alo...@icloud.com>

Subject: Re: How DC statehood opponents see DC (it's almost funny)

Date: March 23, 2021 at 10:37:12 PM EDT

To: Stephanie

I hope the following answers your questions about D.C. statehood.

1. D.C. statehood would NOT be a precedent for other city-states.  D.C. is the ONLY part of the original 13 colonies and the original United States where the people were stripped of the right to self-governance, despite having fought to create this country and bearing all the burdens, but not the rewards, of American citizenship, including fighting in every war the U.S. has ever been in and paying full federal taxes.  

People who live in other cities in the United States do have state citizenship and thus the full right to self-government at all levels of government (local, state, and federal). The people of D.C. have none of those rights and only have whatever Congress at a particular period of time will grant them. Congress can at any time revoke any or all the rights and power it grants the people of D.C. precisely because it is NOT a state. Congress made D.C. a territory in 1871 and, in 1874, because our territorial legislature and local government had too many uppidy black officials, abolished the territory and put D.C. completely under the rule of 3 Presidentially appointed commissioners for almost a century. 

Only in D.C. are all laws passed by the Council subject to being amended or repealed at any time by Congress for any or no reason at all. All laws the Council passes must go first to Congress before they can become final. You probably read about the idiocy of Council staff trying to take copies of legislation up to the Hill and being unable to deliver them because of the fences and other security around the Capitol after the Jan. 6 insurrection. No state has to do this!

2. D.C. would be the most representative state in the union. Because of the way the Senate is organized, rural areas are grossly overrepresented and urban areas and their issues grossly underrepresented.  As the Census will show, most Americans live in cities or the nearby suburbs. The result is that Congress pays less attention proportionally to the concerns of most urban areas, even though there are far more Americans affected. 

You may not know that D.C. is a leader in the sustainability and urban agriculture. Go to https://sustainable.dc.gov/sdc2 to see the District’s plan to make DC the greenest, healthiest, most livable city. UDC is our land grant university and has a number of programs in this area, including the Center for Urban Agriculture and Gardening Education. The D.C. Department of Energy and Environment even has an Office of Urban Agriculture that "works to improve access to fresh, healthy local foods that improve public health, reduce health-related disparities, reduce the environmental impact of food production, and empower District communities by shaping farms that support local priorities." The Department of Parks and Recreation sponsors several partner urban farms that focus on offering gardening and nutrition programs while increasing access to healthy and affordable food to DC communities. For some interesting D.C. urban farms, see: Up Top Acres (https://uptopacres.com); DC UrbanGardens (https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/urban-gardens-grow-residents-devotion-in-dc); and Common Good City Farm (https://www.commongoodcityfarm.org).

By creating a completely separate Federal enclave, where no one but the President and his or her family lives, and that Congress controls and is responsible for, taxpayers of the new state would be treated like Federal taxpayers in the rest of nation.  We would no longer be stuck with the Federal Government’s bills but would share the costs with the 50 other states.  Unlike the Federal Government, the District has had balanced budgets for the past 25 years. In 2018, District taxpayers paid $28.4 billion in Federal taxes, more per capita than any state and more total federal taxes than 21 states. D.C.’s budget is also larger than those of 12 states. 

3. Don’t assume that the politics of a colony will represent the politics of a state.  Many Republicans in D.C. tend to be wealthier than the average D.C. resident and use fewer local services. As a result, they tend to be more concerned about Federal issues and want a voting representative and senators they can contact. As a result, they register to vote in states where they own a second home, their family lives, etc. People who use more District services, have children in the public schools, etc., are more concerned about local elections. Since D.C. has a closed primary system and the winner is often determined in the primary, these folks tend to register as Democrats whether or not they might otherwise register as independents or something else if we were a state. Statehood should also dramatically change who would run for public office here. Many people who would otherwise be interested don’t want to put up with being disrespected regularly. Just look at the way our elected officials, including our non-voting delegate (a colonial office, by the way, which all American colonies have), are treated in Congress. 

The District has gained over 100,000 people in the past decade (601,723 in 2010 and 712,816 in July 1, 2019 Census estimate). We have one of the most highly educated populations in the nation. If D.C. became a state, with the new Congressional positions wide open, who knows who would be attracted to move here and what their parties would be.

Finally, just examine other states’ political divisions before and after statehood. The most recent examples are Alaska and Hawaii which have totally flipped from what their pre-statehood orientations were. 

4. The District government now does the work of a state government AND a local government with a number of Congressional obstructions that no other jurisdiction in the country faces. For example, no D.C. law can immediately go permanently into effect after the legislature (Council) passes it and executive (Mayor) signs it. Because of the requirements for Congressional layover for review, the Council has to pass many pieces of legislation THREE times - as emergency legislation (in effect for no more than 90 days), as temporary legislation (in effect for no more than 225 days), and then as permanent legislation. The Council’s General Counsel has estimated that the Congressional review requirement increases the number of legislative measures the Council passes by 50 to 60%.

Under the Home Rule Act, D.C. is treated in some ways as if it were still a Federal agency. This means that Congress has to approve its budget, something no other locality or state has to do. Congresspeople we do not elect can amend the bill any way they want. Because the budget has to go through Congress, which in recent years has often been dysfunctional at best, this may take a long time, making longterm planning very difficult. It has also caused the D.C. government to be shut down when Congress didn’t act before the beginning of the new fiscal year. There are some recent legislative work arounds for this, but like everything that applies to D.C., because it is not a state, these are not necessarily permanent fixes.

5. Statehood is completely constitutional. The Constitution only sets a maximum size for the Seat of Government of the United States. There is precedent for decreasing the District’s size. Congress decreased the size of the District in 1846 by 32% by returning the City of Alexandria and City of Alexandria (now Arlington County) back to Virginia. H.R. 51 would just decrease the size of the Seat of Government of United States to approximately the area Congress itself designated as the area of Federal interest in the 1973 Home Rule Act, i.e. the "National Capital Service Area," whose boundaries H.R. 51 updates to reflect changes on the ground over the past 47 years. 

The federal funds D.C. receives are basically from the same federal programs that all states have access to - DOT highway funds, Head Start funding, HUD and HHS funds etc. There is no longer a specific federal payment for the District. The District government does bill the Federal government for some services it provides, such as police services for the inaugural or for events like Jan. 6.  However, it is often difficult to get the Federal government to pay their bill. The state functions that have been totally federalized and which should return to the new state primarily involve the criminal justice system (prosecution of D.C. criminal offenses by the U.S. Attorney of D.C., the court system, the parole and probation system, the prison system, and related functions). These are the functions a state government would have to finance. 

The Federal Government owns 27.1% of the land in the United States. In D.C., the Federal Government owns 24.7%. There are 12 states in which the Federal Government owns substantially more: Alaska (60.9%), Arizona (38.6%), California (45.4%), Colorado (36.2%), Idaho (61.9%), Montana (29.0%), Nevada (80.1%), New Mexico (31.7%), Oregon (52.3%) Utah (63.1%), Washington State (28.6%), and Wyoming (46.7%). In Hawaii, the Federal Government owns slightly less (20.2%). With statehood, much of the Federal acreage would remain in the Federal enclave. 

____________________

From: "A. Loikow" <alo...@icloud.com>

Subject: Re: How DC statehood opponents see DC (it's almost funny)

Date: March 23, 2021 at 11:28:32 PM EDT

Maryland doesn’t want us. We would be the 900 pound guerilla that would upset the state’s political balance. The six western counties of Maryland have been threatening for years to secede because of the overwhelming dominance of Baltimore and the D.C. suburbs on state politics.

In addition, Congress first considered retrocession to Maryland in 1803 and many times since then.  Every time, Maryland opposed it, D.C. opposed it and Congress didn’t approve it.  In any case, Article IV, section 5 of the Constitution would prohibit forcing Maryland to take us. You should note that both Maryland senators and its entire House delegation, except for Andy Harris (R), support D.C. statehood.

It also has been 221 years since the District of Columbia was founded, which is longer than almost all countries in the world have existed in their current forms. Think about that for a moment and remember that even in Western Europe, most countries didn’t become a nation state (as opposed to many kingdoms and principalities) until some time during the 19th century. Over two centuries D.C. has developed its own history and most D.C. residents do not want to lose their identity in that of another state.  

In addition, if you look at the populations of states when they were admitted. D.C. has a larger population than every one of the original 13 colonies except Virginia, which had 747,610 people according to the 1790 census, of which 292,627 were slaves. The least populous of the 13 original states in 1790 was Delaware (59,094).

The fact that the District was formed out of part of Maryland is not decisive. Besides article IV’s requirement for consent from the state(s) involved, many states have been formed out of parts of other states. Vermont was created from part of New York and New Hampshire; Kentucky created from Virginia, West Virginia created from Virginia, Alabama in part created from parts of Georgia, Maine was split off from Massachusetts, Tennessee had part of what formerly North Carolina, etc. 

The bottom line is that retrocession to Maryland is a chimera for folks who want to keep D.C. residents as their colonists.