Last week, Republican congressman and rightwing crank (but I repeat myself) James Comey introduced legislation to prevent D.C., the mainland colony, from raising taxes. As he is chairman of the relevant House committee, this has to be taken more seriously than much of the usual anti-D.C. legislation put forth by Republicans. As D.C. Council member Brianne Nadeau noted:

This would throttle DC’s ability to self-govern. The $1b hole in DC‘s budget was caused by Congress, not the District, which has balanced its budget 31 years in a row. We should have the right to implement sound tax policy like any other jurisdiction.

In other words, D.C. is having to raise taxes on its residents and business because Republicans in Congress, in 2025, refused to let D.C. use $1 billion in taxes D.C. had already collected. What Republicans actually want to do is inflict a backdoor cut on the District’s ability to provide services by limiting the tax revenue that can be raised.

I realize most people think of D.C. statehood in terms of two additional Democratic senators, but for the residents of the mainland colony, it is about our ability to govern ourselves. If Comey’s shit ass state of Kentucky ever had to put up with the kind of meddling in their state governance that D.C. does, D.C. statehood would be a sacrament.

I really hope, if Democrats hold the House, the Senate, and the presidency, that they pass a statehood bill, but, at this point, I have such a low opinion of Senate Democrats, I have no idea if they would*.

D.C. statehood now.

*In reality, the issue would be if senate Democrats would be willing to either end the filibuster or create a D.C. statehood carve out for statehood. I’m not optimistic.