How exactly do you propose cutting loose four million Americans?
The PR independence movement is a significant political force in local politics. And after working in San Juan for a year I say we should give in to it. Let them go on their own.
They aren't Americans, they're Puerto Ricans, just ask them.
To answer your question however, by giving them their independance and letting them fend for themselves. Puerto Rico is a money pit and it's time to stop writing it blank checks.
It became worthless to us when they demanded we close the live fire training site for the Navy.
They might be Americans by definition, but since they themselves consider themselves not Americans, but Puerto Ricans, I say if they want independence, let em have it. If they want Statehood, that's fine too, but they will pay taxes like the rest of us.
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.
That's easy. We give the whole island an English test. According to the last Census in 2000 we could expect about 72% to fail.
Those 2,880,000 residents of Puerto Rico wouldn't even be given the option of choosing between keeping their American citizenship or accepting Puerto Rican citizenship.
Any resident of Puerto Rico that deliberately remains ignorant of the English language, in spite of the billions of U.S. taxpayer's dollars showered on them for the express purpose of teaching them English, isn't worth a damn to America.
Next we give the remaining 1,120,000 residents of Puerto Rico a citizenship test to see how much they know about America, its Constitution and its History.
Hell, they'd all fail, because the only thing they care to know about America is what we can spend to pay for all the failed Socialist experiments that have bankrupt the island.
So, there you have it. All that's left for us to do is burn their passports, like they burn our American Flags and the U.S. Taxpayer's property on the island, cut them off financially, and wish them a whole lot of luck with as much sincerity as we can muster, while laughing our asses off.
Aye bendito!
LOL!