From my email this morning:
NEWS FLASH: Last evening, the Republicans held together to block Reid’s effort to achieve cloture (60 votes needed) to go forward with a vote on S. 3217 (Restoring American Financial Stability Act of 2010). The vote was 57-41-2. Unfortunately, this is not the end of the issue: Talks continue as GOP senators block advance of financial overhaul bill.
http://www.votervoice.net/link/clickthrough/ext/103900.aspx
House will vote on Puerto Rican Statehood this week!
Tell your Congressman to vote NO on the Puerto Rico Democracy Act (H.R. 2499) today!
Answers Needed Before Another Star is Added to U.S. Flag
IMPORTANT: Please concentrate on these targets* and send the indicated staffer a direct email asking them to explain why their boss is supporting this bill and stating that you want them to vote NO. Just a few emails from their own constituents would be enough to change a YES vote to a NO vote.
Please click HERE to send your congressman an email.
Last Tuesday, the House leadership pulled the controversial D.C. House Voting Rights bill from the floor schedule, and we thank you for all of your calls and for taking action! However, just two days after they backed away from the D.C. bill, the House announced that it would move to consider an even more controversial bill that paves the way for U.S. territory Puerto Rico to become the 51st state!
Sponsored by Puerto Rican delegate Pedro Pierluisi (D), the Puerto Rico Democracy Act (H.R. 2499) - which has reared its ugly head a number of times over the past few congresses but has yet to have any success - would require Puerto Ricans to hold a national referendum to decide if they want Puerto Rico to remain a self-governing U.S. commonwealth, or become the 51st
state.
The referendum would be set up as two plebiscites which would effectively deceive Puerto Ricans into voting for statehood. In the first round of votes, the Puerto Rican people would be given the choice between remaining a U.S. territory and “pursuing a different political status.” If the majority votes to maintain the status quo, this bill would require that Puerto Rico vote on this same issue every eight years. If the majority votes for “different status,” a second round of votes would be held where Puerto Ricans would choose either statehood or independence-the status quo of “U.S. territory” would not even be an option! In other words, the two ballots would be rigged to favor the outcome of statehood, overriding the wishes of Americans and Puerto Ricans who want to maintain the current commonwealth status.
Why we do not want Puerto Rico admitted as the 51st state:
· The U.S. would transform, overnight, into a bilingual nation. At least half of Puerto Ricans do not speak English, the language of our U.S. Constitution and founding documents. The Washington Times article, “Puerto Rican statehood,” analyzes all the implications of adding a foreign language-speaking state to the Union.
· It would bring immediate demands for massive federal spending. The average income of Puerto Ricans is less than half that of our poorest state, and infrastructure and the environment are far below American standards. Puerto Rico has a population with a median national income of $17,741, nearly a third below that for the U.S.
· Puerto Rico is already a democracy. Despite the bill’s deceptive title, Puerto Rico already has an elected government and exists as a self-governed commonwealth of the U.S.
· Statehood would give Puerto Rico more congressional representation than 25 of our 50 states! It would inevitably give Democrats two additional U.S. Senators and 6 to 8 additional Members of the House.
H.R. 2499 is stealth legislation designed to lead to the admission of Spanish-speaking Puerto Rico as the 51st state, thereby making us a de facto bilingual nation, like Canada. The U.S. Congress should not be forcing Puerto Ricans to vote on statehood, especially since the Puerto Rican people have rejected statehood three times since 1991!
No Member of Congress who describes himself as a limited government, fiscal conservative should be casting a YEA vote for H.R. 2499, as Puerto Rican statehood would cause an immediate increase in federal expenditures, particularly for taxpayer-funded welfare state services.
How about cutting Puerto Rico free. If they want democracy rather than to join the Republic, why not simply cut them free tomorrow?
DC and Puerto Rico. More Dem voters. Who knew?
After we admit Puerto Rico, I saw we make it an even 52 states by making California into 2 states - Northern California and Southern California.
An overwhelming number of our public school graduates think the U.S. has 52 states anyway..........
But it would probably mean two more Democrat senators and a few more Democrat representatives... as well as a way to make the United States “officially” bilingual. It’s all politics.
Puerto Ricans had better be wary. This may be biased in favor of Taxhood (that's "impuesto" in Spanish).
You know Dem-bulbs are running scared when they pull this out of their hat.
They don’t want to be a state they hate Amerika.
We should let Puerto Rico decide.
Add this to granting citizenship to illegal aliens, and they ‘Rats are set with votes.
Two more dim Senators?
Democrats dredging for new votes again...Hey Heney, why don’t you see if Cuba wants to be a state too, while you’re at it.
Importantly, the governor of PR just signed a bill to invalidate ALL birth certificates as of July 1st. The reason for this is that the State Department estimates that 40% of US ID Theft cases are based on PR birth certificates. For those who were legitimately born in PR, they are going to have to pay $5 to get a new birth certificate at that time.
So the Democrats are desperate to shove this bill as quickly as possible, because a vast number of pro-statehood PR fakes are about to lose their identities.
Any Puerto Rican citizen who lives outside of PR and votes for this bill should be made to go back and live in Puerto Rico.
Unfortunately there is no way to know how a person votes (until Obama’s labor thugs get their card-check system in place). The law should be that no Puerto Rican resident of the US should be allowed to vote on this bill at all.
That can be checked by checking drivers licenses, billing addresses, etc.
I know> it ain’t fair but who gets a flying f**k. Steny Hoyer sold America out on the old immigration bills. How he is trying to screw us again over Puerto Rico. Meanwhile his state, Maryland, continues to go down the toilet, which is why I left it a long time ago.
Yeah - but it will give liberal Democrats +2 votes in the Senate and +several votes in the House.
And that’s all that matters.
Have a nice day. You wanted hope and change America - Bend over. :)
“Furthermore, the people of the United States should be allowed a vote on whether they want to admit Puerto Rico as a new state.”
As for voters in the 50 states, they get to elect members of Congress, who will then have the final say on whether Puerto Rico becomes a state. A national referendum on admitting a new state would be unconstitutional and would set a dangerous precedent that would move the U.S. away from being the democratic republic that the Framers set up in the Constitution.
It’ll never get done before November. Smoke and mirrors. Just cut them loose.
ping
they need the Senators...pure and simple...we need to take this to the mat..the part about NON-RESDIENTS voting....
I hope you can help me. I just sent this email to the staffers of the conservative Republican members of Congress who are misguidedly co-sponsoring HR 2499. We need them to VOTE NO on this bill.
You can help by doing these 4 simple things:
1) clicking “forward”,
2) read/edit this message to your liking and type your name at the end of it,
3) cut and paste the staffer’s email addresses (directly below) onto the “To:” line,
4) delete what I’ve written here, delete the staffer’s email addresses below, and Send.
These members of Congress need to hear from hundreds of people, so I hope you will help. Also please pass this email onto anyone you think will help too.
Thanks!
terry.carmack@mail.house.gov; Anthony.hulen@mail.house.gov; mark.walker@mail.house.gov; james.quinn@mail.house.gov; Patrick.lyden@mail.house.gov; dana.gartzke@mail.house.gov; jean.hinz@mail.house.gov; peter.tateishi@mail.house.gov; Francis.gibbs@mail.house.gov; brian.thomas@mail.house.gov; lauren.ellis@mail.house.gov; scott.parker@mail.house.gov; chris.berardini@mail.house.gov; dave.karvelas@mail.house.gov; jim.brandell@mail.house.gov; john.walker@mail.house.gov; Richard.hudson@mail.house.gov; tony.essalih@mail.house.gov; matthew.specht@mail.house.gov; randy.kutz@mail.house.gov; dee.buchanan@mail.house.gov; dale.neugebauer@mail.house.gov; greg.hill@mail.house.gov; Andrew.anuzis@mail.house.gov; bob.cochran@mail.house.gov; bill.smith@mail.house.gov; janet.diaz-brown@mail.house.gov; t.wybensinger@mail.house.gov; steven.shearer@mail.house.gov; mary.springer@mail.house.gov; Jeremy.deutsch@mail.house.gov; Kristin.thompson@mail.house.gov; Jordan.clark@mail.house.gov; eli.hardin@mail.house.gov; eric.dell@mail.house.gov
Good Evening:
Can you explain why this member of Congress is co-sponsoring H.R. 2499?
Perhaps he/she isn’t aware of the ramifications of this bill; please inform your him/her of the following immediately:
* Puerto Rico is already a democracy. Despite the bill’s deceptive title, Puerto Rico already has an elected government and exists as a self-governed commonwealth of the U.S.
* Statehood would give Puerto Rico more congressional representation than 25 of our 50 states! It would inevitably give Democrats two additional U.S. Senators and 6 to 8 additional Members of the House.
* The U.S. would transform, overnight, into a bilingual nation. At least half of Puerto Ricans do not speak English, the language of our U.S. Constitution and founding documents. The Washington Times article, “
* Puerto Rican statehood,” analyzes all the implications of adding a foreign language-speaking state to the Union. It would bring immediate demands for massive federal spending. The average income of Puerto Ricans is less than half that of our poorest state, and infrastructure and the environment are far below American standards. Puerto Rico has a population with a median national income of $17,741, nearly a third below that for the U.S.
H.R. 2499 is stealth legislation designed to lead to the admission of Puerto Rico as the 51st state, costing MONEY WE DO NOT HAVE and, therefore, placing undue financial hardship on American citizens. The U.S. Congress should not be forcing Puerto Ricans to vote on statehood, especially since the Puerto Rican people have rejected statehood three times since 1991!
Any Member of Congress who describes him/herself as a limited government, fiscal conservative should be casting a NO vote for H.R. 2499, as Puerto Rican statehood would cause an immediate increase in federal expenditures, particularly for taxpayer-funded welfare state services.
Do not override the wishes of Americans and Puerto Ricans who want to maintain the current commonwealth status of Puerto Rico by forcing a vote on rigged referenda!
I fully expect your boss to remove his/her name as a Co-Sponsor of this bill, and to VOTE NO on H.R. 2499!
Respectfully,