Look for Dems to get on this whether they win tomorrow or not-- they're losing Electoral potency and they know it. If they can't get rid of the EC, they'll try to stack it to their favor.
Posted on 11/01/2004 4:45:07 PM PST by Ahriman
Puerto Ricans long have been U.S. citizens but cannot vote for the U.S. president, a situation that former Gov. Pedro Rossello promises to change if elected Tuesday to return to the island's top job.
Four years after stepping down amid corruption scandals in his administration, Rossello pledges to lead a clean government while clearing the way for Puerto Rico to become the 51st U.S. state.
Several polls show him with a narrow lead in the governor's race over Anibal Acevedo Vila, the island's nonvoting delegate to Congress, who favors its status as a U.S. commonwealth. Third candidate Ruben Berrios of the Puerto Rican Independence Party is making his fifth run for governor and trails in the polls.
Acevedo Vila says he is determined to prevent the "rampant corruption" of Rossello's first two terms from 1993 through 2000.
"This is an election of historic transcendence," Acevedo Vila told the Puerto Rico radio station WKAQ on Monday. "It will define who we are as a people from the point of view of our values, our essence, our dignity."
Yeah right, two more Democrat Senators. Just what we need.
Great. Two more Democrat Senators and a new welfare state to boot.
If the dims lose big tomorrow, I wonder if the Dims are going to go down there, and push for this real hard.
Well, actually, the welfare part would be reduced somewhat as PR currently receives lots of government goodies but doesn't pay taxes.
Look for Dems to get on this whether they win tomorrow or not-- they're losing Electoral potency and they know it. If they can't get rid of the EC, they'll try to stack it to their favor.
Peurto Rico should be its own country.
I thought Israel was the 51st state?
in fact, PR will not vote to become a state, because that would increase their taxes. I believe they don't pay federal taxes as a commonwealth.
Under the Commonwealth formula, residents of Puerto Rico lack voting representation in Congress and do not participate in presidential elections. As U.S. citizens, Puerto Ricans are subject to military service and most federal laws. Residents of the Commonwealth pay no federal income tax on locally generated earnings, but Puerto Rico government income-tax rates are set at a level that closely parallels federal-plus-state levies on the mainland.
from the PR web site. So, if they became a state, the commonwealth would have to become a LOT more efficient.
Under the Commonwealth formula, residents of Puerto Rico lack voting representation in Congress and do not participate in presidential elections. As U.S. citizens, Puerto Ricans are subject to military service and most federal laws. Residents of the Commonwealth pay no federal income tax on locally generated earnings, but Puerto Rico government income-tax rates are set at a level that closely parallels federal-plus-state levies on the mainland.
from the PR web site.
So, to become a state, the PR commonwealth government would have to become a LOT more efficient, or else tax rates would nearly double.
the pr's will NEVER vote to become a State because then they will have to start paying TAXES!!!!
Stop the occupation!!!
Set Puerto Rico free!!!
Puerto Rico should be unilaterally given its total independence, and all unusual relationships be severed.
The status quo, it seems to me, is 100% downside for the US, with no redeeming virtue whatsoever.
Guys, I don't know what's your frame of reference, but I suspect that it is limited to the streets of New York and the musical West Side Story. I have lived in PR all my life except for my time in the U.S. Army. In many years of dealing with mainlanders, both in business and in the military, I have met some of the greatest Americans ever, friends to this day. Thousands of mainlanders have made the island their home, just as many islanders call several states theirs. We have an unbreakable bond. What's the redeeming virtue for that? There's a granite wall on the south side of the state capitol with thousands of PR war dead, in US wars, that say so. That's our blood tax. Also, it is a myth that we do not pay federal taxes. We pay social security at the same rate as in the mainland but get only a fraction of the benefits. Employers pay FUTA or Federal Unemployment Tax, again at a lower return than in the mainland. Tens of thousands of island military personnel and federal employess file their 1040's every year. And so on. Two more demos in the U.S. Senate and six in the House? Not so fast. The majority here are God-fearing social conservatives and we don't subscribe to that big government, sissy defense, government dependency, gay marriage, abortion on demand, socialist bullcrap. The bottom line, folks, is that the US expanded its borders in 1898 to include these islands with the promise of the freedoms and liberties safeguarded by the US Constition. Our commonwealth constitution declares our loyalty to the American nation and we hold our allegiance to its principles. Please cut us some slack.
CLL
That day will really come, I hope really soon thats why the pro statehood candidate is winning at the momment by a small margin. Also I think Puerto Rico is really important to some of you guys. I think some of you feel like Hitler, he hated jews because they worked better than him, they did better than him and he resented that. Maybe that is the case with some of the ¨true americans¨ in this website they resent puertorricans because ¨we do it better¨ but the jews came out trumphiantly and Hitler killed himself when his world came tumbling down on him and the same will happen with the ¨true americans¨ when Puerto Rico becomes a state. And I want to see the people that resent the puertorricans, I want to see their faces of sadness, but for me I will have respect one thing they dont have. I will demonstrate class one thing they dont have. And the better american, the true one which is the african americans, american jews, american brazilians, chinese americans, japonese americans, european americans, latino americans, cubanamericans, dominican americans, haitian americans and the puertorrican americans are all true americans. In combination with the klux klux, the red necks and everyone else I have not mentioned we are all together like it or not in one country and y´all have to accept it!
Thank you for your response. You gave me a lot of information I didn't know before.
No problem, mon. I've always felt that informed mainlanders make better Americans. I don't look like a stereotypical Puerto Rican, and when I meet people in the states and tell them, many times they recoil at me. I don't play defensive games, like certain other minority group does. I just act like my own self, remain professional, and just wait for the same person to realize that we have much more in common than not. And more often than not they do.
BTW, it seems like we're sending a Republican to Congress: Our lone, non-voting delegate. And congratulations on the National Election.
CLl
Wow! Your statement is well said and accurate. Thank you!
From A Puerto Rican Sister.
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