Dems push to let territorial delegates vote

San Francisco Chronicle ^ | 01/23/2007 | Edward Epstein

[cll]

01-23) 04:00 PST Washington -- Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her House Democrats plan to push through legislation Wednesday that would increase the size of the 435-member House on most matters by giving votes to delegates from four U.S. territories and the District of Columbia.

Republicans are outraged by the plan, referring to it as a "greedy power grab'' in a statement from the office of Minority Leader John Boehner of Ohio. But they are probably powerless to stop it.

The proposal would allow the elected members from Washington, D.C., American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands a vote when the House sits in the "committee of the whole,'' a parliamentary device used during most of the debate, amending and voting on legislation. Four of the members involved are Democrats, and one, the so-called resident commissioner from Puerto Rico, is a Republican.

[cll]

The Constitution says what it says, yes. Still, there are over four million Americans without a say in the Congress that rules over them.

[lonestar]

Do they pay income taxes?

[jdege]

Puerto Rico could become a state any time it liked. Guam and the Norther Marianas might take a bit of campaigning, but they have a fair shot.

D.C., otoh, is the federal reservation, and IMO it's residents shouldn't be allowed to vote for anything. But then, I don't think that federal employees should be allowed to vote, either.

[ECM]

Simple solution: amend it.

[Red Badger]

They tried this the last time in power. As Bob Dole so elequently put it then,"That's representation without taxation"........

[cll]

Except Dc, they don't pay federal income taxes. They do pay Social Security, Medicare and federal unemployment taxes. The "state" tax rates, at least in Puerto Rico, are pretty steep. That Puerto Rico is a tax-free haven is a myth. It might be for multinational manufacturers, but not for ordinary folks.

[advance_copy]

Will somebody please tell Nancy Pelosi that she cannot amend the Constitution with a simple majority vote in Congress?

[Red Badger]

...there are over four million Americans without a say in the Congress that rules over them.

There are over four million Americans without a INCOME TAX to pay for their representation...........

[Perdogg]

In order to have voting status, one must be a state.

[cll]

"In order to have voting status, one must be a state."

Of course. And that's what needs to get fixed.

[rhombus]

Fixed how? Have these places applied for statehood?

[cll]

"There are over four million Americans without a INCOME TAX to pay for their representation..."

Well tax us then. But as Justice John Harlan once stated:

"The idea that this country may acquire territories anywhere upon the earth, by conquest or treaty, and hold them as mere colonies or provinces,—the people inhabiting them to enjoy only such rights as Congress chooses to accord to them,—is wholly inconsistent with the spirit and genius, as well as with the words, of the Constitution." - Justice John Harlan, dissenting in the Insular Cases, 1901"

[cll]

"Fixed how? Have these places applied for statehood?"

According to the territorial clause of the Constitution Congress holds absolute power over the territories and Congress has not done anything to correct the fact that four million Americans are second-class citizens.

[sgtbono2002]

Just part of San Fran Nans non-partisan plans.

Non -partisan is just so much crap when it comes from a democrats mouth.

[rhombus]

I don't see how any of this is different then when people lived on fronteirs in pre-State days. There's a process to go through if people want to become part of the nation.

[goldstategop]

Four guaranteed Democratic votes. And we have RINO Tom Davis to thank for the stupid idea to give D.C two house seats in exchange for Utah's getting one seat. Brilliant!

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus

[cll]

Yeah, but it's been 108 years already.

[Red Badger]

Then vote for statehood. Or vote for Independence. But choose something besides staying a territory. But you must remember, that when all the other states were territories, they didn't have any representation, either. IIRC, the people of PR voted to keep their present status over statehood or independence........

[SpringheelJack]

Under the proposal, the five would vote in the committee of the whole, but if any vote fell within a five-vote margin, the committee would adjourn and the regular 435-member House would vote again. This requirement is designed to meet constitutional objections that arose from the experiment in the early 1990s.

Much ado about nothing, it seems. The proposal is toothless, but it does have the cosmetic appearance of fairness and it provided the Democrats an opportunity to make the Republicans look like squealing whiners.

[Red Badger]

Non -partisan is just so much crap when it comes from a democrats mouth.

Non-Partisan, to them, means ONE PARTY, just like "peace" defined in the USSR meant NO OPPOSITION to Soviet Interests.......