Give us Statehood or Give us Puerto Rico!

washington dc by wayan
Photo by Wayan

The Senate will be discussing a vote for DC in the House today. And I hope the effort fails. I reject the concept that 500,000+ people should only get one vote in Congress. We should have a real real representation – two Senators and one Representative. Or we should be free from Federal taxes.

Give us Statehood or give us Puerto Rico!

Personally, I’m all for Puerto Rico. They get full governmental benefits but are exempt from Federal income taxes. If DC were to have the same setup, our standard of living would jump waaay up. All those tax-avoidance diehards who lurk in NoVA would jump the Potomoc overnight, sending property values, population density, and economic activity into the sky. Oh and I would save up to $14,000 on my tax bill.

Married, mortgaged, and soon to be a father, Wayan Vota is in the fast lane to mid-life respectability – until the day his brood finds his intimate journal of global traveling and curses him with the ever-eternal reply “I’m gonna be just like you, Dad!”

8 thoughts on “Give us Statehood or Give us Puerto Rico!

  1. Wayan, It’s true that my island of Puerto Rico gets many benefits from the federal government but they are limited compared to what states receive and although it is true that we do not pay federal taxes, we would gladly pay them if it meant being truly part of the USA.

    American Citizens that live in the island are second grade citizens as we don’t have true voting representation is Congress nor can we vote for the President. Most of the benefits we receive from the federal government have been fought in Congress and we always have to be making sure that they don’t leave us out.

    As you yourself advocate, we have no problem with carrying the burdens of being a state, if it means we’ll get the fullbenefits of it.

  2. Are we trying to expand colonialism so that it includes DC as well? Puerto Rico’s inferior status has been nothing but a total failure; socially, economically, and politically. DC deserves nothing short of full representation.

  3. Pedro, I totally agree. However, I was really hoping that the article was about Congress making a decision about PR. My people have been in the limbo for toooooo long

  4. From what I understand DC under any such ‘tax-free’ proposal residents would be exempt from paying tax solely on income earned in he district. Therefore if you live in DC, but work in an actual state you’d still be facing taxation without representation. Doesn’t sound like a decent solution to me and I’m appalled that you would sell democracy so cheaply!

  5. As I live and work in DC, I would only be subject to DC taxation, where I have representation. If we could get Statehood, then I would be happy with our representational profile.

    What I don’t want is half-assed one vote.

    We have more citizens than Wyoming, so let us have more representation too.

  6. I agree with Rosana and Xaveri. Puertorricans do not have representation in Congress nor can even vote for their President to be. Do you have an idea of how this have impacted the island for more than a century? Puerto Rico is a US territory with a population of almost 4 million with a cost of living as high as most cities of the US, but in where jobs do not pay as much. Even though I’m all for DC’s statehood (as well as Puerto Rico’s), I think that DC’s situation can’t be compared with Puerto Rico’s and this article’s comparison is out of line.

  7. I’ve been interested in taxes for lengthier then I care to acknowledge, both on the private side (all my working life history!!) and from a legal viewpoint since passing the bar and following tax law. I’ve supplied a lot of advice and righted a lot of wrongs, and I must say that what you’ve put up makes impeccable sense. Please persist in the good work – the more individuals know the better they’ll be armed to comprehend with the tax man, and that’s what it’s all about.