Many DC license plates are emblazoned with the slogan “taxation without representation” and it seems the DC Council wants president Obama to put those plates on his car.

I’d like to see that, too. What I’d like even better is for congress to use its power to admit new states to admit the State of Columbia as the fifty-first state. You would, of course, need to carve out a portion of the existing city to continue serving as the “federal district” and capital of the country. But that could easily be made a compact area around the Mall where nobody (except the President and the First Family) lives and thus nobody is denied voting rights.

It would look something like this:

UPDATE: Initially, I posted the wrong map. My proposal is for a Federal District that would look like this:

For Democrats, this would mean two new Senators and one new Representative. It would also uphold the basic America idea that citizens should be allowed to vote and should be represented in congress. It would be totally constitutional. And though Columbia would be a small state, it would have a larger population than several current states.

Republicans, obviously, wouldn’t like the idea. But I don’t think there are serious arguments of principle against it. Strangely, though, Democratic leaders don’t seem interested either.