Posted on 01/05/2017 8:36:51 AM PST by cll
Puerto Rico's new governor was sworn in Monday, promising an immediate push for statehood in a territory facing a deep economic crisis.
Gov. Ricardo Rossello, 37, proposed several measures aimed at alleviating the crisis shortly after he was sworn in at midnight. Among them is a proposal to hold a referendum that would ask voters whether they prefer statehood or independence. Many have argued that Puerto Rico's political status has contributed to its decade-long crisis that has prompted more than 200,000 people to flee to the U.S. mainland in recent years.
"The United States cannot pretend to be a model of democracy for the world while it discriminates against 3.5 million of its citizens in Puerto Rico, depriving them of their right to political, social and economic equality under the U.S. flag," Rossello said in his inaugural speech, delivered in Spanish. "There is no way to overcome Puerto Rico's crisis given its colonial condition."
The crowd rose to its feet and cheered as Rossello announced that he would fly to Washington, D.C., Monday to back a bill to admit Puerto Rico as the 51st state.
He also said he would soon hold elections to choose two senators and five representatives to Congress and send them to Washington to demand statehood, a strategy used by Tennessee to join the union in the 18th century. The U.S. government has final say on whether Puerto Rico can become a state.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Puerto Rico for years had special tax and investment advantages over the Continental United States. It’s the corruption of the political class that has driven all of their problems.
Independence for Puerto Rico? Yes! Statehood? NO WAY,JOSE!
That’s actually what’s been holding up half the island from supporting statehood. The IRS.
Now they want Statehood??? They are going bankrupt and are looking for a scapegoat....US.
When they come here they don’t want to assimilate just like Mexico.
No thanks!
We should declare Puerto Rico independent and wish them well. Let them pay their own bills and fund their own food stamp program. We don’t need them and we sure don’t need more Dim senators and congressmen in the Dist. of Corruption.
SSDI checks aren't taxed.Neither are EBT cards.
Actually, why not?
As long as they declare English as their official language and don’t expect that any of their debts would be covered by Uncle Sugar, the more the merrier.
The “why” is their impossible debt that would be visited upon our union and the everlasting prospect of adding two Democrat Senators and five Democrat Representatives for a “state” that provide NO measurable value added to the UNION.
Absolutely not. We don’t need our own Quebec or to be further balkanized.
Let them loose, give them their freedom.
I think PR would be better off as a part of Cuba, both culturally and politically. Maybe there is a way we could sell our colonial territorial rights to Cuba or even to Spain now that I think about it. We don’t need another foreign nation to be part of the US. We already have California.
PR should not be permitted statehood because it would be an automatic addition of two more far-left Democrat senators, plus five more far-left Democrats in the House, and seven more guaranteed electoral votes for the democrats.
Puerto Rico has already been part of the United States for over 118 years. People and commerce have always moved freely between the island and the mainland, just as in between Georgia and Florida. What would change that doesn’t exist already? The United States is already the largest Spanish speaking country in the world, anyway.
The Uniparty has already decided they will be the 51st state. After the 2012 referendum they set up another that will not offer the 3rd choice of remaining as they are.
There will two choices, statehood or independence, they will vote for statehood.
Unless many more districts do what mine did and Cantorize their weasels, it is a done deal.
No doubt about that.
Puerto Rico has as much of a chance of gaining statehood as does D.C. Like D.C., this is simply political grandstanding by Liberals in an attempt to gain two Democratic Senators and additional Democratic votes in the House.
I don’t want your debt, that you wildly ran up. Solve your own problems and stay out of our pockets. You’ve taken enough (without even paying federal taxes).
Give them independence and cut them loose. We don't need another New York, California, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Maryland, New Jersey or DC act-alike stinking up the Union. We have more than enough tyranny-minded basket cases with stars in the flag already.
Maybe western Kalifornia can secede and join Puerto Rico, Mexico, Cuba, and the Dominican Republic and form another Spanish speaking banana republic fueled by drugs from sea to shining sea? At least they all have palm trees.
Off topic...
I noticed Willie Green’s name in your ping list. He hasn’t posted here since October 2010, though his account is still active.
http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/by:williegreen/index?brevity=full;tab=comments
I agree. Cut them loose.
My dad (Pedro Guadalupe Guadalupe) and his brother(s) / sister(s) and mother sold there farm to the U.S. Government for the Navy to use for artillery practice. I don't know, if theirs was the only sale, but my father would tell me about having to go get the cows, when it was raining. Also got in trouble for riding the cows. So I'm guessing a large farm.
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