Puerto Rico governor warns public debt not payable

Fox News ^ | 06/29/2015

[cll]

Puerto Rico's governor believes the U.S. territory will not be able to pay back its $72 billion public debt, a spokesman told the Associated Press late Sunday.

Gov. Alejandro Garcia Padilla's spokesman, Jesus Manuel Ortiz, confirmed that the island's government is seeking to defer payments while negotiating with creditors.

He confirmed comments by Garcia that appeared in a report in The New York Times published late Sunday, less than a day before Garcia is scheduled to deliver a public address amid debate on a $9.8 billion budget that calls for $674 million in cuts and sets aside $1.5 billion to help pay off the debt. The budget has to be approved by Tuesday.

"There is no other option. I would love to have an easier option. This is not politics, this is math," Garcia is quoted as saying in the Times.

The island's debt figure is four times that of Detroit, according to the Washington Post.

Puerto Rico's bonds were popular with U.S. mutual funds because they were tax-free, but hedge funds and distressed-debt buyers have been stepping in to buy up the debt as the island's economy worsened and its credit rating dropped.

[cll]

IMO, headline should have read: Puerto Rico government gives up.

[cll]

Puerto Rico Ping! Please Freepmail me if you want on or off the list.

[MrEdd]

Without reading the article I will guess that root of the problem is government employee pensions.

In which case Puerto Rico is just more damned honest about where things are (across the board) than any of the states.

[Chode]

OK boys... crank em up!

[I want the USA back]

Nothing to worry about. The administration will pour billions of our dollars into Puerto Rico. Everything will be OK, got to keep the Hispanic vote.

[Sasparilla]

Maybe those PR Libs should apply to the UN for some cash.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Ridiculous.
While the Obama government falls all over itself to help Cuba, a part of our own nation could use some help and guidance.

[SMARTY]

“O” will make them the ‘58th’ state before he leaves the WH. :)

[Fresh Wind]

Obama will offer this deal to Puerto Rico:

Your debt is forgiven if you vote for statehood.

The Rat Party gets two more senators, the country gets 3.7 million more Hispanics, and the IRS gets to tax all the productive Puerto Ricans.

What’s not to like?

[Celtic Conservative]

Change its name to Porto Penurio (poor port)

CC

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

My co-worker tells me that Puerto Rico is a corrupt cesspool, and there is a saying down there: Your first murder is free.

And of course, a value-added tax won’t help the populace at all.

[OttawaFreeper]

Maybe he could just call it a student loan (guaranteed Obama or Hitlery or Bernie would forgive it, no questions asked).

[Opinionated Blowhard]

administration will pour billions of our dollars into Puerto Rico. Everything will be OK, got to keep the Hispanic vote.

Right -- and will continue to do so whether its a Democrat or a Republican who win the next election.

[VanDeKoik]

Well America wanted overseas territories 120 years ago, now we are stuck with the bill with all the stupid tax to go along with it.

[Teacher317]

$72 billion? They have GDP of $103 billion. That's barely 70 percent. The US is flirting with 125 percent, which the IMF calls "unsustainable". (It was around 70 percent when the Dems took over Congress, just before Obama took office.) Japan is closer to 150 percent.

I'm almost surely racist for saying so, but it seems to me that PR would be taking the lazy way out by attempting bankruptcy.

[Mr. K]

with a total $9.8 billion national budget, who the hell loaned them $72 Billion?

Or were they a “victim of predatory loans”

[C210N]

What’s this? Puerto “disability capital of the world” Rico can’t pay her debts? Who would have imagined.

[wastoute]

Here is a thought. Call it a birthday present and cut them loose.

[submarinerswife]

“US Navy, we don’t want you here anymore...”

“Wait we were just joking.”

Anyone else remember that?

[Starboard]

Puerto Rico has been borrowing to pay for its budget deficits. It was just following the lead of the U.S. lol