Children and prisoners are U.S. residents who are part of the population their representatives govern. The issue with noncitizens is different: whether congressional representation and political power should be increased by people who are not members of the electorate and, in some cases, may only be here temporarily or unlawfully.
And paying taxes doesn’t automatically create a right to political representation. Tourists pay sales taxes, foreign investors pay U.S. taxes, and temporary workers may pay federal taxes too. Tax liability and citizenship are two different legal concepts. The real policy question is whether House seats and Electoral College power should be apportioned based on total population or on the citizen population. 🙏
Tourists pay taxes too — sales taxes, hotel taxes, gas taxes and more — but that doesn’t give them political representation. Congressional representation is ultimately political power exercised by elected officials chosen by U.S. citizens. It determines House seats, votes in Congress, influence over federal spending and policy, and a state’s Electoral College weight for roughly ten years. So the question isn’t whether people here illegally should pay taxes. The question is whether people who cannot vote and who have no lawful permanent status should nevertheless increase a state’s political power for the next decade.
@greg_price11 Policy is not made for one individual. Someone may understandably view birthright citizenship through the lens of his own family history, but the question is what rule best serves the country as a whole. Personal experience can inform policy; it should not determine it.
@DeepLeaksHQ We have $40 trillion in debt and most of the US citizens can’t afford their own healthcare. Why the hell are we giving money away to other countries so they get healthcare?
She speaks terrible English, and she clearly doesn’t want him to ask a question because she can’t come up with a follow up response. She can only read what her staff wrote on the paper, but it’s rich listening to her question the trustworthiness and integrity of anyone’s testimony when no one actually believes she wasn’t involved in all the Somalia fraud that’s taken place. How has she not been indicted on Rico charges?