MURDOCK: Just say No to D.C. Statehood and Free Locals From Federal Income Tax

Washington Photo Safari, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

NEW YORK — As I warned last fall, Democrats are pushing to make Washington, D.C. America’s 51st state. Republicans are resisting this idea, as well they should. Democrats, in turn, blame the GOP’s reluctance on — what else? — “Racism!”

“Now today the state of D.C. would be 46 percent black, which would make it the state with the highest percentage of black people in the entire country,” U.S. Rep. Ayanna Presley told a House hearing Tuesday. “I’m gonna make it plain: DC statehood is a racial justice issue, and racism kills.”

Former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich was blunt Monday, via Twitter: “Opposition to D.C. statehood is racist. Period.”

No, Virginia, D.C. statehood is not racist. This nauseatingly predictable Democrat argument also is absurd, stupid, and sick. 

GOP and conservative reservations about statehood have nothing to do with anti-black bigotry. They have everything to do with the Constitution, Washington’s federal role, and how New Columbia would change the Senate’s partisan mix. Fortunately, Republicans can and should turn the tables on Democrats with a quintessentially conservative solution to this challenge.

First, as R. Hewitt Pate, Esq., told the Heritage Foundation, D.C. statehood faces deep constitutional tank traps. Article I, Section 8 guarantees Congress “exclusive” legislative control of D.C., “in all Cases whatsoever.” Statehood T-bones into this provision. Maryland originally ceded territory to create D.C. So, Pate argued, under Article IV, Section 3, Annapolis could veto D.C. statehood. Also, the 23rd Amendment calls D.C. “the seat of government” entitled to Electoral College votes, as “if it were a State” — not as a state. Big difference. Thus, D.C. statehood should require a constitutional amendment, not just congressional approval.

Second, the Founding Fathers envisioned America’s capital as a safe space in which three federal branches could operate without meddling by pesky governors and state lawmakers. In Federalist 43, James Madison saw this as an “indispensable necessity,” lest “the public authority might be insulted and its proceedings interrupted with impunity.”

Third, GOP objections to D.C. statehood are no more anti-black than Democrat reluctance to splitting Utah into North Utah and South Utah would be anti-white. Both parties would fight either idea to avoid facing the business end of a political gun.

New Columbia would choose two Democrat senators, even if they were caught red-handed knocking over a bank on Election Day. The only place more Democrat is The Faculty Club at UC Berkeley.

D.C.’s voters are registered 76.4 percent Democrat and 5.7 percent Republican. Last November, Joe Biden beat Donald J. Trump there 92.1 percent to 5.4 percent.

So, D.C. statehood, complete with two permanent Democrat seats, would move Senate control that much further from Republican reach. The moment D.C.’s senators were sworn in, they could vote to dismantle the filibuster and enact the far Left’s neo-Marxist, totalitarian-lite agenda.

Republicans and conservatives reject total Democrat control, which is what D.C. statehood would help secure.

Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D – Michigan) on Tuesday offered the Left’s best argument for this idea: “Put simply, you oppose DC statehood, you support taxation without representation.”

Taxation without representation triggered the American Revolution. Indeed, Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton (D – Washington, D.C.) may not vote on the U.S. House floor. The District has zero senators.

This complaint — pressed deeply into D.C.’s steel license plates — is perfectly valid. And this grand compromise solves it:

D.C. should enjoy non-representation, without taxation.

Washington, D.C. should remain a political neutral zone. However, its residents should be excused from federal individual income tax. In 2018, the Tax Foundation reports, this arrangement would have let 541,450 taxpayers keep $6.726 billion in their bank accounts. Henceforth, such funds would finance residents’ personal advancement and stimulate the local economy. Tax-bludgeoned Americans would flock to D.C. to keep more of their hard-earned money. D.C. would blossom into Singapore on the Potomac.

This fair, equitable solution offers Republicans a serious counter-proposal to the Left’s lunge for more power and control, shrouded in relentless, filthy lies about racism.

The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of TrumpTrainNews.com

Deroy Murdock is a Manhattan-based Fox News Contributor, a contributing editor with National Review Online, and a senior fellow with the London Center for Policy Research. Bucknell University’s Michael Malarkey contributed research to this opinion piece.

Deroy Murdock is a Manhattan-based Fox News Contributor, a contributing editor with National Review Online, and a senior fellow with the London Center for Policy Research.


  1. No Personal Income Tax would also mean NO Refundable Tax Credits.

    2018 TAX CUT – Results are not measured by the amount of Refund, but by the actual Tax Liability – withholding tables were changed in February 2018 – however, not well communicated so that taxpayers would have adjusted their withholding.

    Even those who paid NO TAXES benefited.

    Examples – Married filing jointly with 3 children under 17 – no income taxes due; however Increased Refunds due to Refundable Earned Income Tax and Additional Child Tax Credits – this FREE MONEY is not subject to 7.65% payroll taxes, as your additional earnings would be
    ·      $15,000 income – no income taxes, but resulted in a refund of $7,900 (52%) in 2017 and $8,306 (55%) in 2018 – additional $406
    ·      $25,000 income – refund of $8,600 (35%) in 2017 and $9,663 (39%) in 2018 – an increase of $1,063
    ·      $15,000 “reported” self-employment profit – refund of $5,600 (37%) in 2017 and $5,862 (39%) in 2018 – increase of $282 – after self-employment taxes – no real proof required

      1. Why not just cut DC out and attach it to the nearest state. It could become a new county. Remove ALL homes from the site leaving only stores, hotels, etc. That way the DCers will have what the rest of Americans have. A headache.

  2. you preaching to a lot of stupid public school grads, who have zero clue about the facts you wrote! All they hear is one word, perpetually used to pass to destroy America’s freedom! after 6 decades of perpetual poverty from welfare and they still vote for the party that put them there! speaks volumes of why your speaking to an empty house!

    1. “6 decades of perpetual poverty from welfare” sounds like a form of “reparations”.
      6 generations living on Public Assistance, after their GGG,Grandfather was sold into slavery by his countrymen.

        1. They are and have been getting reparations.. Read up on the just passed 1,9 trillion dollar Cares act. Black only farmers getting the big bucks and read up on the PIGFORD–all black farmers in the late 1990s. It was a joke–there were at that time only 1250 black farmers in the USA.. Seventeen Thousand claimed to be Black farmers and collected and collected.. Most had a little garden in their back yard and were paid.. So you see you pay out reparations year after year after year. The law has a name for that EXTORTION.

      1. Add up what that welfare cost working Americans. Can you imagine what it would cost for insurance like Medicaid? Free everything. What about the cities they gave destroyed? Up in the BILLIONS. Final resolution? Accept reparations lose you U.S. citizenship.

        1. Welfare payments are PAID OUT OF THE SOCIAL SECURITY TRUST FUND. It was written that way because they never could have envisioned the racket it has become.. Now you know why the Social Security trust fund is going broke in the next few years. You can have open borders but you cannot have open borders and a welfare system open to any soul and their family who come here to live off of the working class of the USA.

    2. The Government has discovered that if you feed the animals, they will stop hunting for their own food. They become dependent on humans to feed them. So if they stop hunting and no one is there to feed them, they will die. That is actually sound logic out of the Government.

  3. Democrats need to stop breaking our constitutional freedoms, laws, etc. We are fighting against a one party rule, unless something changes in the RINO class, something detrimental is going to happen in this country because people are getting tired of this mess. It’s time to say NO and follow the constitution.

  4. Is it NOT racist to turn a City into a State, just because it has more residents of a certain race? How many states should be States, only because there are more Caucasians living there?

      1. Besides–it would be unconstitutional. The founding Fathers designed the area of the seat of the Federal Government to be a district and a non-political area.

  5. The democrats won’t like it because it will bring lots of wealth into the district. It will, by nature, drive the poor out because property values in more parts of the district will go up. As the urban wealthy drive out the blacks i.e. the democrats, to the point where they will loose much of their political power. One democrat proposal is trying to skirt the Constitution by shrinking DC itself to the capitol, the White House, and the supreme court building, and making a state out of the rest of what is currently DC. The problem with that is the land for DC was taken from Maryland and Virginia, and, if DC is shrunk, both are going to want their land back. If the democrats shrink DC there won’t be any land for a 51st state to sit on. Those areas of the city that revert back to their original states, would be taxed at the rate of those states.

  6. Well…I am guessing the great preseley has not read the Constitution….the 10 miles around DC are not for statehood…period!

  7. What about Tuskeegee, Alabama?? They have approx 75 % Blacks, Should we make THAT TOWN a STATE TOO???

  8. Rep. Tlaib, I am a Deplorable Neanderthal living in the leftist state of California. I exist here having “taxation without representation.” Guess your premise won’t work.

    1. The words RACIST and RACISM are the only two words in the Democratic dictionary. Which is why they use them so much.. The other words like FREEDOM and CONSTITUTIONAL, SHALL NOT BE IMPINGED are all from the Republican version which Democratic politicians find hard to understand, It must be Demislexia that they suffer from.

  9. The author suggests that d.c. residents not be taxed. The black residents of that city(?) will be immediately displaced by the influx of lawyers and lobbyists types that will swarm the area like the oil drilling crews descended on the oil fields of North Dakota. Noo Yawk will be vacant.

  10. Sorry, the District of Columbia is just that — a “District”, NOT A STATE. It was designated that for a reason — which our Forefathers decided it was the safest place for our Federal Government…and they are 100% right!

    I don’t know about you, but that “Racism” card being played time and time again by the deluded dems, is getting really old and blaise. That is just old material to make the dems think they have a legitimate reason to pull their half witted stunts. AMERICANS ARE DONE LISTENING TO THAT CRAP DEMS. Give it up. You dems are not impressing anyone — especially the Blacks who you “PRETEND” to care about so they vote for you, then you QUICKLY FORGET ABOUT once you are in office. Shame, shame on you dems!

    It’s definitely time for our Black Race to wise up to the DEMONCRATS’ agendas of “USING & ABUSING” the Blacks as tools to promote the dem’s own sucky agendas! Blacks, Latinos, etc. are just “tools” for the dems to use and then toss aside like trash. Those races need to see historically exactly that behavior from the “TWO FACED DEMONCRATS” and then back away from the enemy that keeps them down!

    That’s who Dems are and what they do. Best for those races to put their Faith in President Trump, who promised them better jobs and got that for them!! SMARTEN UP BLACKS, LATINOS, ETC. DO NOT BELIEVE THE LYIN DEMS…EVER!

  11. Pressly is nothing but war monger along with the rest of her little group. I would like
    to see every one of the kicked out of the country to fend for themselves. Then we can
    listen to the pigs squeal.

  12. I am fed up wth the doneys race argument. There is no systemic racism in the US except the one they have made up for their own naarrative. They can put that card up their anal canal.!

Comment

Your email address will not be published.

By submitting this form, I hereby consent to TrumpTrainNews.com's Terms of Use and Privacy Policy, which permits TrumpTrainNews.com and its affiliates to contact me.