Since this week marks my first time filing taxes while living here in DC, today seems an especially appropriate moment to shout out to the good work of groups like DC Vote. Over the past year, thanks to such advocates’ efforts, attempts to gain House voting rights for DC residents have neared ever closer to victory. Last April for the first time in a generation, the House passed a DC voting-rights bill, though Senate Republicans–backed by the White House–blocked the proposal by a narrow three-vote margin in September.
As the license plates around here read, “Taxation without representation.” It’s too bad President Bush doesn’t appreciate the reference (perhaps not coincidentally, given that 85% of DC voters backed Al Gore). After taking office in 2001, Bush promptly had the Clinton-installed license plates on all presidential limousines replaced with ones that read more simply, “Washington DC.”
