Posted on 04/27/2010 3:43:23 PM PDT by GailA
According to Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD), the House will vote on H.R. 2499, the Puerto Rico Democracy Act, later this week. The legislation provides Puerto Rico a two stage voting process and makes some non-resident Puerto Ricans eligible to vote on Puerto Rican statehood. This legislation has rigged the process in favor of making Puerto Rico the 51st state and is not a fair way to force statehood on a Commonwealth whose people may not want it. Furthermore, this may be an expensive proposition for the American people who are already on the hook for approximately $12.9 trillion in national debt.
This bill attempts to rig the voting process and denies the American people a real say on the issue of whether they want to allow Puerto Rico to be granted statehood. The fact of the matter is that Puerto Ricans have rejected statehood numerous times and this bill seems to have been written in a way to fast track statehood without a majority of Puerto Ricans favoring the idea. Furthermore, the people of the United States should be allowed a vote on whether they want to admit Puerto Rico as a new state. If the people of Puerto Rico can vote, the people of the United States should have a vote.
(Excerpt) Read more at blog.heritage.org ...
If Puerto Rico had more autonomy than a state of the Union, your argument would have merit, since it’s high time that the federal government treated states the way that the Constitution requires. But PR is a U.S. territory subject to the plenary powers of Congress (so Congress can legislate over PR without need to abide by the Commerce Clause), and PR actually has less autonomy than any of the 50 states (and, of course, voters in PR do not get to elect the Congressmen and President that enact laws that apply to PR). The fact that Congress excludes most residents of Puerto Rico from income tax laws does not mean that PR gets to decide what federal laws apply to it, and, of course, Congress has the constitutional right to impose the federal income tax on residents of PR at any moment.
The “autonomy” argument is a sham. If people cared about giving PR more autonomy, they would support either statehood or independence.
Good to know I am not the only PR-born FReeper who is offended by the 1% that gives the rest of FReepers a bad reputation.
Yes, they prefer the kind that can't capitalize or punctuate.
Unlike the Mexicans, all persons born in Puerto Rico between April 11, 1899, and January 12, 1941, are automatically conferred citizenship as of the date the law was signed by the President (June 27, 1952). Additionally, all persons born in Puerto Rico on or after January 13, 1941, are natural-born citizens of the United States. Note that because of when the law was passed, for some, the natural-born status was retroactive.
If these US citizens want statehood, I have nothing against it. They would be the 27th most populous state, with more people than Oregon, Oklahoma, Connecticut, Iowa, Mississippi, Arkansas, Kansas, Utah, Nevada, New Mexico, West Virginia, Nebraska, Idaho, New Hampshire, Maine, Hawaii, Montana, Rhode Island, Delaware, South Dakota, Alaska, Vermont and Wyoming.
Of course the ‘Rats would be the first to squawk in favor of Puerto Rico independence if the GOP favored statehood... but that’s just another example of how bad the two-party system is broken.
Bottom line: Puerto Ricans deserve statehood if they want it. They are U.S. citizens.
D.C., Puerto Rico, felons, and illegals... the hope and change they talked about.
Some think there are 57.
If they want statehood, which appears from the past votes to not be the case, then it makes sense to also allow the rest of the US citizens to vote on this. They do not speak the common language of the United States, a first for any location wishing to become a state. It is a step in a new direction that needs to be soberly considered and not rushed into.
Beware of all these issues on the Obama agenda springing up in the next half year. He's got to get them on the docket as fast as he can while he still has the socialist/leftist majority.
This sure came out of Left field in a hurry, didn't it!
The issue is not racist. Eventual statehood for PR is actually another step in the spread-the-wealth-equally-to-all routine urgently being prepared and pressed by the Obama/Emmanuel/Axlerod communist troika in DC.
Stealing from the haves to give to the have-nots is not limited to the borders of this country in their world-view. After Hawaii, a liberal Dem state, comes Puerto Rico, another socialist state....then what....Guam? the Virgin Islands? Then a world tax by the UN imposed on us (already being broached)?
Despite the fact that the marxist agenda becomes clearer every day, the politically uneducated in this country just can't seem to connect any dots at all.
In short, marxist plans for wealth re-distribution is not confined to our shores. The communards think in much wider terms. We will be expected to support through taxation selected socialist welfare states beyond our shores.....and most of the propaganda promotion will be couched in racist terms to shame the naive American suckers into approving their own self-destruction.
Leni
I know a few Puerto Ricans, some recent immigrants and others that have been here a long time.
While most do consider themselves to be of a different nation at least culturally, they generally love America and are appreciative of what being a Commonwealth of the US has done for them.
Oh, and most Puerto Ricans have little respect for illegal immigrants from Mexico et al.
If they want statehood, which appears from the past votes to not be the case, then it makes sense to also allow the rest of the US citizens to vote on this.
That debate and vote was held almost 60 years ago when they were given citizenship. You must've missed it.
They do not speak the common language of the United States, a first for any location wishing to become a state.
Not true. The original state constitution of New Mexico (1912) contained a bilingual English/Spanish provision to address the very same issue.
But New Mexico has only half the population of Puerto Rico. so maybe you think that those US citizens don't deserve statehood either.
I agree. It is not about race, this nation was founded on legal immigrants. My grand parents on my step dad’s side were from Italy. Once they hit the US shores they became Americans, spoke English, and learned American customs. The old world was left behind. They worked hard, thrived and served in the US Military when called to do so.
thanks
You may not remember this, but at one time in America, all the PR citizens that lived in NYC, were afforded free air trips back and forth to their beloved island!
The issue of statehood for Puerto Rico, should be one really questioned, considering its location in the yearly march of hurricanes. The issue SHOULD be on the November ballot as an open referendum for ALL CITIZENS, as defined by the Constitution, to have a say. It should NOT be as a vote of Hispanic/non-Hispanic. Puerto Rico has had some of the benefits of being a U.S. property, but no taxes have ever been levied against the inhabitants of the island.
Review your history numerous Puerto Rican have lost their lives defending this country in many wars and honorably doing so.
Like any other group we are not all on welfare,drug addicts, criminals or gaming the system, if you cannot see the stereotyping taking place on this site then we definitely speak a different language
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