The Hill News

“John, I will give you D.C.”  

In a year of exasperating setbacks to local democracy in the District of Columbia, these words were the last straw. Though they were uttered by the president in a closed-door meeting in 11th-hour budget negotiations, they sounded loudly around D.C.

While attacks from a new conservative majority in the House of Representatives were expected this year, D.C. leadership and residents held out hope that allies in the Senate and White House would have their back when push came to shove. But! when Speaker John Boehner shoved, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Obama folded. The equal rights of American citizens living in D.C. were relegated to a political bargaining chip.

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