You’ve heard of “taxation without representation.” That means imposing taxes on people who have little or no say in their government. It was one of the reasons for the American Revolution against Britain in 1776.
But today, we have what National Review magazine aptly calls “representation without taxation.”
That’s because U.S. territories get a voice in Congress even if the territories’ residents don’t pay U.S. taxes. Technically, the territories’ “delegates” – as opposed to elected representatives from the 50 states – are not permitted to vote on a bill’s final passage. But Congress circumvents that restriction by letting them vote in committee.
That became very important recently when the Natural Resources Committee in the House of Representatives voted on whether to end the president’s ban on deep-water oil drilling. That ban, imposed after the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, has killed thousands of jobs.
The vote by the elected U.S. representatives on the Natural Resources Committee was in favor of lifting the ban. But then votes cast by five U.S. territories – Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, the Northern Marianas and the U.S. Virgin Islands – were added, and the measure to end the harmful ban on drilling failed.
“The practice of giving micro-territories a voice in Congress is questionable in any case,” National Review said, “since it is essentially representation without taxation.” The delegates “cast deciding votes on a vital question of national policy.”
That is wrong. It may be appropriate to let delegates from non-taxpaying U.S. territories offer their views on U.S. government policies in speeches before Congress, or to let them submit their views in writing. But they should not have a vote on bills, either in committee or on final passage.