Plates reflect D.C. protest

Though Obama doesn’t officially start his second term until he takes the oath today at a small White House event, his entourage was already sporting a change Saturday: Three vehicles in the presidential motorcade carried new license plates that say: “Taxation Without Representation” – a nod to the quest for full representation in Congress for citizens living in Washington, D.C.

The city had the plates created to protest the fact that district residents don’t have full voting rights in Congress, although they are federal taxpayers.

Obama did not use the plates in his first term, but after four years in Washington, he “has seen firsthand how patently unfair it is for working families in D.C. to work hard, raise children and pay taxes without having a vote in Congress,” White House spokesman Jay Carney said Thursday.

McClatchy-Tribune