Happy Tax Day?
There are few for whom tax day is an enjoyable holiday. And as I have learned this year with my first real job, paying taxes in the first place, though essential to sustaining our nation, is an expensive pain in the tuchas! As a disenfranchised resident of Washington, DC tax day has taken on especially bitter ring to me and thousands of others living in our nation’s Capitol.
If DC were actually a state it would have the 5th highest taxes in the nation (an eighteen point ranking difference from my home state of Maryland). This would perhaps be an acceptable reality if it were not for the fact that when I moved to the city I also lost my representation in Congress. I literally moved three miles away from my parent’s house and by crossing ‘state’ boundaries I lost the most fundamental right granted to American citizens: the right to be equally represented in a government of the people, for the people.
You read that last paragraph correctly; DC residents do not have the right to voting representation in Congress! Its 650,000+ citizens have no senators and a non-voting member of the House of Representatives yet they pay some of the highest taxes, serve in the military, and are likely the most politically engaged citizens per capita. Where is the justice in this situation?!
If you too are outraged by this gross inequality I encourage you to make your voice heard. Although tax day may be an unpleasant day for people nationwide, at least those of you living outside of Washington DC have a voice and vote in Congress. It is therefore your unique responsibility to speak for those who have been disenfranchised since the founding of our nation and to help put an end to taxation without representation once and for all.
You read that last paragraph correctly; DC residents do not have the right to voting representation in Congress! Its 650,000+ citizens have no senators and a non-voting member of the House of Representatives yet they pay some of the highest taxes, serve in the military, and are likely the most politically engaged citizens per capita. Where is the justice in this situation?!
If you too are outraged by this gross inequality I encourage you to make your voice heard. Although tax day may be an unpleasant day for people nationwide, at least those of you living outside of Washington DC have a voice and vote in Congress. It is therefore your unique responsibility to speak for those who have been disenfranchised since the founding of our nation and to help put an end to taxation without representation once and for all.