GOP Rep Biggs: Democrats Are So Greedy for Power, They've Presented a 'Laughable' DC Statehood Proposal
Arizona Republican Rep. Andy Biggs issued a scathing reply to the Democratic Party’s recent attempts to turn Washington, D.C., into a state.
“The Democrats are so greedy to permanently tilt the political balance of power in their favor that they have presented us with a laughable D.C. statehood proposal,” the House Freedom Caucus chairman said in a statement Wednesday-.
The remarks referred to the introduction of HR 51, a bill sponsored by the D.C. delegate to Congress, Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton, who is a Democrat.
On Wednesday, the House Oversight and Reform Committee approved the bill, also known as the Washington, D.C. Admission Act, by a vote of 25-19, according to The Hill. The legislation, which would carve out parts of D.C. — largely federal buildings and national monuments — as the nation’s capital while turning the rest of the city into its own state, will now go to a vote on the House floor.
“For one thing, it is a terrible idea to create a tiny new ‘capital district’ no larger than a city park that would be completely surrounded by an entirely new state,” Biggs said. “What if the government of ‘Washington, Douglass Commonwealth’ doesn’t want to ensure the security of the new capital district? Or to help supply its electricity or plumbing? How could a territory no larger than a few city blocks avoid being coerced into submission?”
But committee Democrats praised the bill on Twitter, referring to the idea of making D.C. a state in typical terms of liberation and oppression.
“Congress can no longer allow D.C. residents to be sidelined.”
—Congresswoman @EleanorNorton on why she and @OversightDems will be voting on H.R. 51 TOMORROW at 10AM. #DCStatehood must be a priority.https://t.co/POSOLtVdSQ
— Oversight Committee (@OversightDems) April 13, 2021
In his Wednesday statement, Biggs linked to a proposed amendment to the bill highlighting the fact that the Democrats’ attempted power grab is likely unconstitutional, as it would illegally expand D.C.’s representation beyond the power of its already existing electoral votes and alter the nonpartisan nature of a seat of government removed from states as outlined in the 23rd Amendment.
“Such [a] scheme would create constitutional crises in which either the President would serve as an elector for his or her own reelection or the Congress, controlled by a single party, would distribute the electoral votes in a partisan fashion,” the amendment said.
“Or maybe the Democrats want the few actual residents of the new capital district — essentially just President Biden and his immediate family in the White House — to have as much voting power as the residents of some entire U.S. states: a completely ludicrous proposition,” Biggs added in his statement.
Biggs also blasted the idea of permanently empowering a Democratic superstate on Twitter, calling out the “radical left” for “their push to permanently tilt the political balance of power in their favor.”
The radical left continue their push to permanently tilt the political balance of power in their favor. #DCStatehood is unconstitutional, plain and simple.
— Rep Andy Biggs (@RepAndyBiggsAZ) April 14, 2021
It is not the first time that the GOP has had to spell out the language of the Constitution to rebuff Democratic efforts to turn D.C. into a state and, unfortunately, it likely will not be the last.
Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr co-led a group of 22 state attorneys general this week in issuing a letter to President Joe Biden vowing to oppose any unconstitutional attempt to permanently alter the balance of power in the federal government.
“This coalition has one simple goal — to uphold the U.S. Constitution,” Carr said. “The Washington, D.C. Admission Act is unconstitutional, represents unsound policy, and, if allowed to take effect, would create a super-state with unrivaled power.
“If the Biden Administration and Congress attempt to enact this legislation and provide statehood to the District of Columbia,” Carr added, “our coalition will stop it.”
In the letter, the coalition of state AGs affirmed that D.C. is as near to sacred ground as exists in the nation, and that the idea of D.C. statehood was considered and rejected by the framers of the Constitution.
“It was no accident that our Founding Fathers set aside an exclusive federal district to serve as the location for the seat of government, nor was it accidental that they did not provide for it to be converted into a state,” the AGs wrote. “They explicitly considered and rejected this idea.”
It is clear that the Democrats’ proposal to turn D.C. into a state is driven by a sheer hunger for power, and that their intent is not the liberation of D.C. residents, but the annihilation of political enemies.
The U.S. government, and American culture writ large, depend upon a healthy and productive tension between conservatives and progressives. With the D.C. proposal, however, Democrats have made clear that they harbor no love for either fair governance or the great American tradition.
Time alone will tell if legal remedies will be enough to combat this blatant leftist power grab.
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