Every elected congressman has a title. In Utah, there is Representative Jason Chaffetz [R-UT3].
The last three characters translate to Utah’s 3rd Congressional District. Utah’s 3rd District stretches from southeast Salt Lake City in the northwest down to the Four Corners Monument in the southeast.
Where Utah’s 3rd District does not extend is to the far east and the District of Columbia.
The District of Columbia has over 650,000 residents. In the 2016 election, Utah’s 3rd District saw 285,305 voters, with Rep. Chaffetz garnering 209,589 votes. Of those who chose to make their voices heard, not a single voter was from Washington, D.C.
Rep. Jason Chaffetz, however, has decided to prioritize working on behalf of the residents of Washington, D.C., and not you, the voters who elected him. Since becoming the chairman of the United States House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, Rep. Chaffetz has continually worked to undermine the votes of the democratically elected officials of our city in Washington, D.C.
Representative Chaffetz’s committee is actively pursuing (with a vote planned for next week) to overrule how we, the residents of Washington, D.C., can and will use our own tax dollars.
Does that sound like America to you? In any other state inside the United States, their elected congressional representatives would stand up to this bullying, but the 650,000 Americans in Washington, D.C., do not have a voting member in Congress. What we have is Taxation Without Representation.
Did you know District residents paid the highest federal taxes per capita in the United States, amounting to over $26 billion dollars last year alone, but did not have a representative in Congress? Yes, the residents of Washington, D.C., paid more in federal taxes than 22 states last year, to include Utah (ranked 36th). Each of those 22 states’ citizens has a representative in the House and two senators in Congress. The District of Columbia has neither. What kind of democracy is that?
So next time you vote, please remember that Rep. Jason Chaffetz is not focused on his job to represent you. He is focused on another District altogether – the District of Columbia. As residents of this District, we ask you to call your elected representative at 202-225-7751 and ask him to do his job – represent you, not us.
