Republicans Shouldn't Fear Puerto Rico Statehood (Yes To Satehood Of Puerto Rico, But No To Statehood Of DC!!!)

Townhall.com ^ | October 18, 2020 | Jason Emert

[ConservativeMind]

I thought they had a small number of actual working individuals, a lot of corruption, over $100 billion in debts, and paid no US income taxes.

What has changed?

[LibWhacker]

Lol... Maybe Pres Trump could lease ‘em the roving one square foot of land under her butt. Art of the deal, right? If anyone could do it, he could.

[VeniVidiVici]

I’ve said before - Ricans from the island are conservative. NewYoricans are the smelly assed liberal ones than infect everywhere they go.

[ConservativeMind]

Two major forms of “federal largesse” determines those net takers.

1. Retirees who get their Social Security and Medicare, but have retired to that state and likely lived elsewhere when earlier employed.

2. Welfare recipients of everything under the sun (food stamps, Welfare, SSI, housing assistance, etc.) who have rarely worked throughout their lives. These government pay outs likely dwarf retirement-oriented payouts on a one-for-one basis.

Puerto Rico is hugely imbalanced to “2,” while most states like Florida are hugely imbalanced to “1.”

[Lurkinanloomin]

No to PR statehood.

[sima_yi]

When I lived there in the seventies, the results were the same. Only a tiny minority wanted independence, with the majority choosing to remain a commonwealth.

[j.havenfarm]

I’ll withhold judgment pending the election. We’ve been hearing this “Latinos have conservative family value” line forever. Maybe that’s going to pay off this year; up until now they vote for authoritarians and baby killers like their lives depended on it

[Svartalfiar]

D.C. should be dismembered and its constituent parts returned to the two bordering states from which it was carved.

To Maryland. None of current DC is part of Virginia. But, your idea is otherwise good!

[Svartalfiar]

The Federal government should remake the Federal District of Columbia as a Federal district within the borders of the state of Maryland, and the full time residents of the city of D.C. as citizens of Maryland, with D.C. as one federal voting district - one representative in the House, and a state voting district - one representative in the Maryland legislature. D.C. residents would be allowed to vote for all statewide offices in Maryland.

The point of DC is that it isn't part of a State - it's separate and therefore no State can have any outsize influence on it. What we should do is eliminate ALL residential and retail, any private property within the district. Return the land that's currently apartments or stores to Maryland, and leave DC with a tiny footprint of only government buildings and monuments/museums. Little bit of land to make that an even shape, and allow space for minimal future expansion. There's no need for a city mayor/council/etc, you can have maybe the War Department or the rekajiggered Park/Forest/BLM/Wildlife Service handle utilities, maintenance, roads, and janitorial services.

The ONLY people actually living in DC would be the presidential family, everyone else would have their residence in an actual State.
The only other living quarters would be dorm-room style apartments for use by Congress when in session.

[Svartalfiar]

Then perhaps all those states which are currently net "takers" of federal largesse - who, by your definition, can "support themselves" - should be expelled.

And how are you calculating net givers/takers?

Do you include Social Security? Many people retire to other States than they lived, meaning working States will contribute, while Florida and others will "take".

What about military spending? Some States have several bases, others have none. But this funding goes to protect every State, not just the ones with military facilities. But, those are the only States that get the side benefit of that spending eventually going into the local economy.

What about tariff income? Does CA or Texas get credit for LA/Long Beach or Houston/Galveston? Those dollars are coming "from" that State, even if they aren't actually from the State.

[dljordan]

Oh Lord, I said ‘gives them’. Doh!!

[alexander_busek]

And how are you calculating net givers/takers?

You are posing that question as though I, personally, have thought up the expression "on the fly."

Google "net takers" and "states" and you will see that this concept has been around for quite a while, and there is pretty much a consensus as to what it means.

Regards,

[dp0622]

You are really trying to get me to leave Staten island aren’t you? :-)

[bert]

Well, one question....... do you live in the flood plain?

[dp0622]

You know I lived at one of the highest points on Staten island at one time. Then I moved but we have far away enough from the water to be good.

I remember the hurricane. I was driving a cab for extra money at nights and the water went above hylan boulevard. Which is very far from the beach.

I can’t stand the heat so I would have to move someplace that is relatively the same. I’m thinking so far parts of Pennsylvania are the closest to normal you can get up north.

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

I would be fine with Puerto Rico becoming a state if they would adopt English as an official language.

(Congress has imposed requirements for statehood before. For example, Utah had to give up polygamy to be admitted.)

But if not, I would give the PR House delegate, as well as those for Guam/Pacific and DC floor vote privileges at least for legislation affecting their areas, and give each area 1 vote in the electoral college. These things would be done because each place has U.S. citizens living there.

(DC already has 3 EV’s, but since that seems to be statehood by the drink — not to mention home rule is currently a dumpster — I would reduce it to 1. So the other shoe would drop strictly upon Mayor Year Zero Bowser and the gang.)

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

Basically, socialist in the USA began using PR as a territory for their experiments during the Great Depression. I’m guessing PR never completely recovered.

And their Canada-level 14% sales tax certainly doesn’t help.

[kvanbrunt2]

Independent state. Country of puerto Rico.

[tlozo]

"SAN JUAN, PUERTO RICO, APRIL 5 -- Gov. Rafael Hernandez Colon today signed into law a hotly contested bill making Spanish the sole official language of Puerto Rico. The measure repeals a 1902 law that designated both English and Spanish as official languages."

6/4/1991

[Lazamataz]

That’s AWESOME.