78-09-A3

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District of Columbia

Transcript Thirteen colonies have become 50 sovereign states each with its own capitol, its own government, with powers firmly fixed by the Constitution. And these states are joined together in a federation. Which colony or which of the 50 states should be the locale of the national capitol? The founding fathers solved that problem with great common sense. Wanting to make sure we preserved the system of sovereign states, an idea unique in the world, they created a district separate and apart from the states to serve as the site for the nation's capitol. That very simply is the "D. C. "--District of Columbia. By doing this the issue of conflict of interest was neatly solved, the federal government cannot in any way be charged with favoring one state over the others. Federal employees living in the national capitol cannot have an undue influence on the congress with regard to their own interests because they don't vote for representatives in Congress. It is all spelled out in Article One, Section Eight of the Constitution that the seat of government would be exempt from the political process so that federal government would remain the servant of the people and not become their master. Over the years, as the national government has taken on more and more tasks and thus assumed greater and greater power, Washington has become the fastest growing city in America probably because it created the fastest growing industry--government. The citizens of the District elect officials of city government and also vote for President and Vice President . The district receives an annual grant from the federal government--no strings attached--which makes up 38% of its budget. Federal aid amounts to more than $1000 per capita per year. No state receives that level of handout from Washington. Incidentally, Washington is the richest metropolitan area in the United States. Problems in the rest of the country mean more prosperity for Washington, where the government will happily try to solve anything. Per household income averages $10,000 higher than in New York City, possibly because 38 per cent of those working in the district are employed by the federal government and another 25 per cent work in related service industries. But now comes Senator Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts who says the citizens of the District of Columbia are victims of taxation without representation and that possibly they also suffer racial discrimination. His answer is to make the District our 51st state. Properly lobbied, his bill soared through the House 189 to 127 and moved to the Senate for hearings. If this were implemented, the District of Columbia would have two United States Senators and one or two representatives in the House. Their constituency would be for the most part government employees and there is no way that the 51st states' representatives would free themselves from a built-in conflict of interest. They would undoubtedly vote for higher taxes and expansion of the government payroll, claiming that was in the best interest of their constituency. This is Ronald Reagan. Thanks for listening.		Details Batch Number 78-09-A3 Production Date 06/27/1978 Book/Page RPtV-318 Audio Youtube? No
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