Democracy:

Democracy in DC:

Most Americans do not know, and many would find it hard to believe, that under our current system DC residents are second-class citizens. The District is denied local control - Congress must approve the District's budget, and can override any action of the city government. At the same time, District residents do not have even one voting representative in the Congress which controls them. DC is effectively a colony, with all local decisions directly subject to change by a Congress largely out of touch with local realities.

Most people who live outside of the District do not know that DC citizens pay about $2 billion a year in federal income taxes - more than several states - yet cannot elect people to decide how their money is spent. DC residents have served and died in our armed services over the last half century in disproportionately high numbers, but have no representation in the Congress that decides whether or not to go to war. The U.S. is the only democracy in the world that deprives the residents of its capital city the basic rights granted to other citizens.

Even more damaging than the lack of Congressional representation is the colonial-style control that Congress exerts over the District. Adding one, or three, DC representatives to the 535 members of Congress would, by itself, do little to solve this problem. Members of Congress regularly overturn the judgment of local elected officials - on public health, tax, budget, school issues - all with impunity.

The results of Congressional interference and the inefficiency of colonial-style management are as distressing as they are predictable. Poverty has increased, during a time of economic expansion, with the percentage of residents in poverty going from 16.6% in 1988 to an appalling 22.1% in 1998. Even more astonishing was the growth in income inequality. The richest 20% of DC residents earned 16.4 times as much as the poorest 20% in the late 80s, and 27.1 times as much in the late 90s.