Trump’s right on Puerto Rican statehood
Trump an 'absolute no' on statehood for Puerto Rico as long as critics remain in office - Sun Sentinel
Excerpt: President Donald Trump on Monday declared himself an “absolute no” on statehood for Puerto Rico as long as critics such as San Juan’s mayor remain in office, the latest broadside in his feud with members of the U.S. territory’s leadership.
Trump lobbed fresh broadsides at San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz, a critic of his administration’s response to hurricanes on the island last year, during a radio interview with Fox News’ Geraldo Rivera that aired Monday.
Gov. Ricardo Rossello, an advocate of statehood for the island, said Trump’s remarks had trivialized the statehood process because of political differences.
“The president said he is not in favor of statehood for the people of Puerto Rico based on a personal feud with a local mayor. This is an insensitive, disrespectful comment to over 3 million Americans who live in the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico,” Rossello said.
Bottom Line: Here’s a fact, not an opinion, for one to consider. The Puerto Rican leadership has proven to be entirely inept. Not just the San Juan mayor. Especially Rossello. And for pervasive corruption and failure the reward should be statehood? President Trump couldn’t be more correct. Puerto Rico’s government is currently in default, essentially bankrupt. They had $72 billion in debt with an additional $50 billion in unfunded pension liability. Governor Rossello has refused any efforts for pension reform or fiscal responsibility and restraint on the island. The result has been a recession that’s currently in its 13th full year. Well before Maria there was a critical doctor shortage and growing dearth of skilled labor as increasingly, educated/skilled Puerto Ricans were making their way into the states to avoid the catastrophe created by government “leaders”. How bad is Puerto Rico’s debt situation?
To put it in perspective, in the 50 states, only California has more debt than Puerto Rico. California has nearly 40 million citizens, or 12 times as many citizens as Puerto Rico. That’s right – Puerto Rico’s government is literally 12 times as fiscally irresponsible as California’s. Any questions? By comparison, Florida, one of the top three states for solvency/stability has $21 billion in long term debt and 21 million citizens. Or put another way, we have 29% of the debt of PR and 630% more population. Could the picture be any clearer?
It’s easy for provably failed leaders like Rossello to call out Trump in the name of politics. Mainstream media won’t do the work to illustrate the points I just did. But they’re incompetent, they’ve failed and they’re desperate to cover up the catastrophe they’ve created by making Trump out to be the boogey man. But once again there are two sides to stories and one side to facts.