Far-left DC Council member proposes insane rent scheme to reward thieves

Let’s take a minute to check in on the governance of the nation’s capital. I have the misfortune to live in a city that is governed by some of the most idiotic people ever to sit on a city council. Washington, D.C., is plagued by incompetent leadership, and it’s going to get worse when far-left Janeese Lewis George replaces the comparatively sane and moderate Mayor Muriel Bowser.

But let’s just stick with the council, and the brilliant schemes they are proposing. At-large Council Member Robert White, for instance, has proposed the SHARE Act, which addresses the problem of tenants failing to pay their rent by rewarding them for not paying .

White writes on X: “Every year, thousands of DC residents lose their homes over unpaid rent. Most owe less than $5,000. Going to court is stressful for tenants, expensive for landlords, and slows down the system. We need a better way to resolve rent issues.”

We do need to a better system, but what he’s proposing is a worse system. Under White’s legislation, landlords would not longer be able to initiate eviction proceedings against tenants who failed to pay rent. Instead, the tenants and landlords would have to enter mediation.

Here’s how that would work: The landlord would immediately agree to eat 1/3 of the owed rent, and then the city — by which I mean the taxpayers — would eat another third. Then the tenant, supposedly would pay just the final third of what he owes the landlord. I don’t know why we’d trust that the tenant will pay, since he refused to pay in the first place. But anyway, we’ve just rewarded him for refusing to pay by reducing his burden by two-thirds.

Commentator Matthe Yglesias responded to White on X, pointing out the obvious : “If every tenant in the city finds out they can get a 2/3rds discount on their rent by not paying, don’t you worry this is going to create some bad incentives?”

And my friend and colleague Reem Ibrahim writes : “This is so, so dumb. So tenants can go 3 months without paying rent & taxpayers will bail them out?”

Yeah, that’s exactly what White is proposing. Because he cares more about helping thieves than helping the people they’re stealing from.

Unfortunately, the DC Council is a bad ideas factory. In fact, they recently announced that they were considering a new ban on rat poison , at a time when our city is overrun with rodents. It’s disgusting! Can local government work to solve actual problems, or at least not try to make them even worse?

Unfortunately, this is what happens when you live in a one-party state: rule by the far left, which unfortunately faces no effective political competition in my city, and can thus indulge in the most sociopathic legislating you can possibly imagine. Not good at all.

Robby Soave is co-host of The Hill’s commentary show “Rising” and a senior editor for Reason Magazine. This column is an edited transcription of his daily commentary.