Jeff and e: You are correct that residential portions of the District can be ceded back to the corresponding states that they were carved out of. It is even theoretically possible to reduce the District simply to the federal buildings, and nothing else. The Constitution requires only that it be the seat of government, nothing more. The reality is that this isn’t about “taxation without representation” and everybody knows it. It’s about creating a new heavily Democratic faux state without the bother of doing what the Constitution requires. Your solutions are both good and valid, but they would clearly not accomplish the underlying Democratic goal. They don’t just want votes, they want “votes plus.”
In the unlikely event that the residents of DC could actually succeed in getting the approval of two-thirds of Congress and three-quarters of the states for making DC a state, the whole current Democratic political plan would be thwarted. They want all the benefits and none of the burdens of being a state. With Marion Barry and his gang in charge, how would the state of Columbia (sorry, “Washington” is already taken) fund itself? It is almost entirely dependent on federal money, and even California hasn’t gone that far. The only thing that would be accomplished would be the creation of the poorest and most dangerous state in the union. But if the Democrats succeed in their current plan, they get votes in the House and later the Senate without ever having to demand that the District become a responsible, independent state. And they can continue to buy the District’s votes with the tax money from all the other states.
