Puerto Rican Separatists Wish Fidel Castro a Prompt Recovery

El Vocero de Puerto Rico (Spanish-language article) ^ | August 1, 2006 | AP

[GatorGirl]

Thanks for YOUR service, cll!

I think the matter should be resolved once and for all--statehood or independence. The provision that only Puerto Ricans get to decide troubles me. Perhaps the rest of us should get a say as to whether we want 50 or 51 states (or 52, we should deal with Guam too, although Guam is of far more strategic importance and it makes more sense to keep it as a territory if it does not become a State).

Don't get me wrong, I don't hate Puerto Rico at all, but I just don't think we need to have territories any longer. I'd welcome them in or cheer their independence, whatever. I'll sent a note to Sen. Martinez lending my support to the proposal.

Thanks again! GG

[cll]

"I'll sent a note to Sen. Martinez lending my support to the proposal."

Thanks for that. Please tell your neighbors too.

[cll]

I did not want to leave this thread without posting this:

Original caption: Uncle Sam to Porto Rico: "And to think that bad boy came near being your brother!" (Chicago Inter Ocean, 1905.)

[VeniVidiVici]

You could live here for years and years and not need to speak Spanish at all. I know quite a few people that do.

So who are all these Puerto Ricans that can't speak English at all?

[SouthernBoyupNorth]

True New jersey is the "Garbage State"... I hate it almost as much as you do I guarantee. And Puerto Rico has some very pretty real estate. But it also has HUGE slum areas where you are advised not to stop for stoplights at night, BY THE POLICE, because you will be robbed. It is a drain on the resources of the US. If they would pony up and apply for statehood I would not be so bitter I guess. I too have been to Puerto Rico.... benefits of being in the Navy.... and yes Cesspool does indeed describe the areas that the "touristas" never see.

[cll]

Perhaps those who feel they don't need to. Which is easy enough to do in Florida, as it is here. But I maintain that the later generations (post 1980's) adapt more easily to English in the mainland and the island than the earlier generations (1900's to 1970's). I have witnessed that with my nieces, for example. They grew up here until their early teens, moved to the midwest and then to Florida and now they won't even speak Spanish anymore.

[cll]

"But it also has HUGE slum areas..."

When were you in Puerto Rico, may I ask? That was true through the late sixties/early seventies. San Juan had a big slum around the channels at the south east corner of the bay, but that's gone now. There are still pockets of die-hards like that near the airport, but it is not anywhere as bad as it was when I was growing up. Now our "bad" areas are no worse than Hialeah, for example.

[VeniVidiVici]

Oh, I'm not doubting you but just from past experience it seems odd that there are Puerto Ricans out there that don't speak English at all. Some who have lived here a very long time.

[bandleader]

I'm all for Puerto Rico's Independence!Independence from The AMERICAN TAX-PAYER!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[bandleader]

MEGA DITTOS TO THAT!!!!!!!!!!!

[CubaninMiami]

"Now our "bad" areas are no worse than Hialeah, for example"

I take this as a parting shot aimed at me and Cubans in general. I don't live in Hialeah, but would be proud to in any case. Equating Hialeah, a city full of hard-working, lower middle class Cubans, with the crime infested slums in puerto rico such as "La Perla" is sheer lunacy.

Adios taino

[4Freedom]

"I think that's a fair bill and I think one of your Senators, Mel Martínez,..."

Is the bill fair to the U.S. Taxpayers?

Hell no!

How many more centuries are we supposed to support that island of freeloaders?

What will it cost the U.S. Taxpayers when there's 10 million atrevidos on that island?

[cll]

fwiw:

Puerto Rico plight

By Lawrence A. Hunter
Published August 2, 2006

The Washington Times

Congress struggles over what to do about illegal aliens coming to the United States from Mexico and Central America. Yet a huge problem within the Hispanic branch of our own American family is overlooked. Four million American citizens of Hispanic origin struggle in Puerto Rico under circumstances that can only be described as totally un-American. The Institute for Policy Innovation described this in a report three years ago ("Leave No State or Territory Behind"). The Brookings Institution is publishing a book with virtually the same findings.

People born in Puerto Rico are American citizens with U.S. passports who have all the rights of citizenship, including dying for their country in the American military -- all the rights that is except the right of electing voting Members of Congress or voting for the president. Few "mainlanders" recognize the U.S. has a colony, which they can visit without a passport and whose residents may freely come to the mainland to visit, work or live permanently without presenting a passport, obtaining a visa or a green card or going through customs.

Between 1950 and the mid-1970s, Puerto Rico was considered by many a showpiece of economic growth and educational advancement. Since then, however, Puerto Rico's economy has been stagnant, its standard of living has lagged, and the educational system has deteriorated. Unemployment persists at 11 percent, and labor force participation (60 percent) is less than two-thirds the rate in the States, much lower than any member country of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, including Mexico (82 percent).

Nearly half of Puerto Rico's residents still live below the U.S. poverty line, and the gap in income relative to the mainland continues to widen.

The Brookings book and the IPI report constitute a consensus among economists. Puerto Rico's lack of prosperity derives from flawed tax policy and a bloated welfare state stimulated and perpetuated not only by the government of Puerto Rico but also by very smart tax lawyers who designed fatally flawed tax policy for the U.S. government, which benefited large multinational firms with territorial tax credits but barely benefited the people of Puerto Rico.

While the strategy did attract multinationals to Puerto Rico and demonstrated for the relatively few hired how productive the Puerto Rican people can be, the strategy ultimately backfired. It was immensely costly to the Federal Treasury -- on the order of $2.67 in tax benefits received for every dollar of labor compensation paid -- and not only distorted Puerto Rico's local politics, by making the tax incentive dependent upon Puerto Rico's continued territorial status, but also distorted the structure of production and employment in Puerto Rico. Big multinational companies got large tax credits, often for income attributed to Puerto Rico but produced by activities in the States, resulting in very few jobs or small-business opportunities for Puerto Rico residents. As a result, 4 million people born in Puerto Rico now live in the States where they can find a job and vote.

Special tax breaks also exacerbated a willful blindness in Washington of the urgent need to resolve the status debate. Is Puerto Rico to become a state, remain a territory or gain independence as a sovereign nation? The Bush administration is to be commended for its recognition of the festering political-status issue in its recent recommendations for Congress to establish a formal process of Puerto Rico self-determination to resolve permanent status in a timely fashion.

In 1996, with a generous 10-year phase-out period, Congress repealed those tax credits, and the multinational firms have remained on the island. But the history of corporate welfare had created an economic strategy with one pillar -- perpetual dependency. In this regard, Puerto Rico's economic problems are not unique and are only compounded by the uncertain status situation.

This is why a new economic strategy is required for Puerto Rico, one that incorporates wise federal policies rather than handouts; that encourages Puerto Rico to get its welfare state under control. Members of Congress should read the Brookings Book and IPI report and, at a minimum, create national enterprise zones including Puerto Rico. That would make it possible for these American citizens to climb the ladder of prosperity and achieve the American Dream.

Companion national enterprise zone bills including Puerto Rico were introduced by Rep. Paul Ryan, Wisconsin Republican, and Sen. Sam Brownback, Kansas Republican, in the last Congress. And Puerto Rico's newly elected nonvoting Member of the House, Luis Fortuno, introduced similar legislation (H.R. 2182) in this Congress.

National enterprise zones provide a practical way to get tax policy right, easing regulations and establishing incentives for private capital and enterprise to invest and flourish in these lagging sectors of America, whether on the mainland or on that little corner island of America 1,000 miles off the coast of Florida.

Lawrence A. Hunter is a senior fellow at the Institute for Policy Innovation and former staff director of the congressional Joint Economic Committee.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/commentary/20060801-093445-2380r.htm

[CubaninMiami]

Why didn't the writer mention the infamous work ethic of Puerto Ricans? That's 99.9% of the problem.

[4Freedom]

Criminality and a general disdain for the English language, school or studying are holding Puerto Rico back, too.

The majority of the residents of Puero Rico are functionally illiterate in one language and some in two.

There's always someone ready to tell us about the 50 residents of Puerto Rico that have died in the 3 years of the Iraq war, but they never mention the more than 50 that are murdered on their streets and the more than 50 others that are killed in traffic accidents EVERY MONTH IN PUERTO RICO.

At least the Puerto Rican members of our armed forces had a fighting chance to stay alive. You can't say that for the residents of Puerto Rico they left behind.

[4Freedom]

The violence inherent in Puerto Rican society is also an abject lesson in the failure of big government, Liberal/Socialist, fascist gun control and the lack of a death penalty for even the most heinous of crimes.

[CubaninMiami]

Amen