Posted on 02/20/2021 3:26:27 PM PST by MinorityRepublican
With one move, Democrats could reshape government and potentially lock in their majority in the Senate for years to come. Four of their own stand in the way.
The party may have just a few months to make it happen—but leaders in the House and Senate are taking their time and arguing about the details.
Advocates see statehood for Washington, D.C., as a moral issue, because it would give equal rights and representation to the residents of a city whose population is larger than that of three states. And they see it as a legal issue, because it would clarify the gray areas that result from the federal government’s control over some municipal affairs. However, as has always been the case in establishing new states, the issue is almost completely consumed by politics, because what the statehood debate really comes down to is control of the Senate.
The biggest obstacle to D.C. statehood is the filibuster, the Senate’s 60-vote threshold for passing most bills. Given D.C.’s history of voting with the Democratic Party, there’s no way that 10 Senate Republicans would join the chamber’s 50 Democrats to curb their own political power. But Republicans are only part of the problem. First, pro-statehood Democrats may have to convince four members of their caucus: Kyrsten Sinema and Mark Kelly of Arizona, Joe Manchin of West Virginia, and Angus King of Maine, an independent who votes with the Democrats on nearly everything. They are the only senators on the Democratic side who haven’t already co-sponsored statehood legislation or indicated that they plan to.
(Excerpt) Read more at theatlantic.com ...
I hasn’t opened as far as I am concerned.
Unconstitutional.
Seems like Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin both had said no to the Dems.
Make DC a state but send fedgov to Puerto Rico.
Not that the Constitution means anything anymore, but the way they want to do it would in fact be Constitutional.
For the specifics, see reference #10.
Is it specifically spelled out, or did they just take a pass
on doing it?
Democrats know that they may struggle to maintain their majorities in the House and Senate in next year’s midterm elections. That’s one reason Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser has called for a statehood bill to be put on President Joe Biden’s desk during his first 100 days in office.That’s why I was surprised that Eleanor Holmes Norton, Washington’s longtime delegate to Congress and perhaps the biggest statehood booster around, told me she wants to proceed slowly. Norton, who doesn’t get full voting rights in the chamber, said she’s convinced that the Democrats are going to expand their majorities in the House and Senate in 2022. And she wants more time for statehood advocates to build up public support. She’s worried that any vote will fail if Congress doesn’t feel pressure from the American people, or if advocates force a vote ahead of clearer national priorities, such as COVID-19 relief. A setback like that, she fears, could end the momentum that’s been steadily building for the 51st-state movement—so she wants Biden to stay away from statehood for now. “If he jumps D.C. statehood ahead of the two or three issues that have priority, people will think he’s crazy,” she said. “We’re not ready to have him jump the issue on D.C. statehood yet. We have to do more homework in the Senate.”
I thought DC statehood was a Constitutional issue since it was created by the USC.
works for me
It’s a shame more people didn’t take advantage of it so their
offspring wouldn’t live their lives whining about oppression.
I should hope so.
Completely unconstitutional.
No state...return the boundaries to the state from which it comes.
She's wrong. It's now or never.
How big would this state be, the size of a mid-size city?
I dunno and to lazy to look.
From what i remember DC is a small square on the edge of Maryland on the Virginia border.
Mitt, Susan Collins, Murkowski and others pushing each other down, stepping over each other “Me! Me! I’ll vote for DC statehood. Look at me over here.”
She should be convinced. Not because more citizens (yet) want their agenda...she should be convinced because they will be even better at stealing federal elections. And now...they control the fed apparatus and their Dept of Just Us doesn't even need to pretend to be non-biased.
And when they follow up with transparent steal 2.0, who's going to stop them? More of the same rubber-stamping from the (R) controlled statehouses?
If we're ever going to stand a chance to get our country back, it's going to have to start now from the ground up. Local / State, with people who are not only MAGA minded...but who will actually take their oaths of office and responsibilities seriously.
We know that there is a capital city in each state. So D.C. becomes a "state", where would the capital city be?
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