Posted on 04/14/2011 12:06:50 PM PDT by Mikey
I'm having a discussion with a friend who is a liberal and he keeps stating over and over that Puerto Rico is an official state of the United States. I on the other hand keep telling him its a territory NOT a State.
He keeps saying he can prove it, except he never produces any evidence.
I've showed him some older documents on the subject that Puerto Rico is a territory and not a state, but that will not convince him.
Does any Freeper out there in freeland have any recent documents and can prove Puerto Rico is in fact still a territory and not a state or is a state. If yes or no it is a state, provide me with the proper URL so that I verify this.
Shal 'aam
AAPiY
Mike
“Not a state, they don’t pay our taxes.”
The first part is correct. The second is incorrect. We do pay federal taxes.
Never Argue With A Fool – They Will Drag You Down To Their Level, Then Beat You With Experience!
They abide by US Federal law, and they do not have voting representatives in the US Congress. Basically, they're a legal entity like the Philippines used to be and sort of how Washington DC is now. After the Spanish-American War, we administered both the Philippines and Puerto Rico, but we let the Philippines go and kept Puerto Rico because they're inside the American hemisphere.
I will say one thing, though: You travel to San Juan and it's completely indistinguishable from Miami. Hell, they have three Bed Bath & Beyond retail locations in Puerto Rico.
And yet more millions frittered away to even more people receiving relief.
Yep, the senator argument is the only one that needs to be advanced. It’s short, to the point, and undeniable.
“Definitely NOT — yet. There’s a constant Democrat campaign for PR’s adoption as a state but we have more than enough welfare payments already. We don’t need to add thousands more welfare grifters and Democrat voters.”
That is incorrect. The democrats, along with the republicans, both always manage to block statehood. Ask Luis Gutierrez (D-IL).
Puerto Rico is a self-governing commonwealth in association with the United States.
The chief of state is the President of the United States of America. ...
www.topuertorico.org/government.shtml - Cached - Similar
He keeps babbling on and on how he has proof, but never produces it.
Liberals, go figure.
If it was me, I would find a new friend. This one is stupid and we all know stupidity is terminal.
You need to show him three documents: The Foraker Act of 1900, the Jones Act of 1917 and the Puerto Rican Constitution of 1952, and ask him to point out to you where any of those documents describes Puerto Rico as a state within the United States. They don’t. The Foraker Act, two years after the end of the Spanish American War, allows for a civil government to replace military control and states that the island is a territory of the United States. Neither the Jones Act nor the Constitution change the language of the Foraker Act. I suspect he is confused because Puerto Ricans enjoy US citizenship.
But federal employees, or those who do business with the federal government, Puerto Rico-based corporations that intend to send funds to the U.S. and others also pay federal income taxes.
Because the cutoff point for income taxation is lower than that of the U.S. IRS code, and because the per-capita income in Puerto Rico is much lower than the average per-capita income on the mainland, more Puerto Rico residents pay income taxes to the local taxation authority than if the IRS code were applied to the island. Residents are eligible for Social Security benefits upon retirement. But Puerto Rico is excluded from Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and receives less than 15% of the Medicaid funding it would be allotted as a state, while Medicare providers receive only partial state-like reimbursements for services rendered to beneficiaries in Puerto Rico (even though the latter paid fully into the system).’
You can’t teach stupid.
Manifesto of USA Statehood
(Metro Manila, The Philippines)
http://www.expansionistparty.org/Manifesto.html
The Pro-Statehood party in Puerto Rico is affiliated with the (mainland) Republican Party, not the Dems.
It’s really simple. If PR was a state it would have two Senators in the Congress. Go to the Senate website and ask the poor liberal to identify the two state Senators from the list of all Senators.
More like D.C. than the Philippines, because Puerto Ricans are automatically U.S. citizens at birth and are free to move to the mainland if they want. Filipinos were not U.S. citizens even when the U.S. controlled the Phillipines.
I was traveling down south and on my way back up from Louisiana he called me and invited me to his house in North Carolina. That's where I am now. We (his wife, he and I) were watching TV and Obamarx came on and I made a comment and the discussion started.
He and his wife are nice people, but as with all liberals they are deluded and will not believe it even when proof is staring them right in the face.
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