Obama Backs DC Home Rule

President Obama on DC home rule? "I'm in DC, so I'm for it," he said today at a Washington public school, DCist reports. In his first statements openly supporting home rule, he argued that DC residents pay taxes and "should be represented like everyone else," but admitted it would be "difficult to get through Congress." Two statehood bills are sitting introduced in Congress, and Senate Democrats have promised to push the issue, so it could make headway for the first time in years, the Washington Post reports.

Obama's administration has backed home rule before, DCist and NBC Washington note, and the president even had his limousine plates switched to the DC's "Taxation Without Representation" message last year, so who knows. "All right, that was an easy one," Obama said today, and went on to the next question. (More Washington DC statehood stories.)