Posted on 04/28/2010 4:47:55 PM PDT by yoe
Last night (Tuesday) on his TV show, Glenn Beck dropped another bombshell — on Thursday, Congress will take up a bill to make Puerto Rico a state. Why is our Congress doing this now? Secretly? Quickly? If it hadn’t been for one of Beck’s “Refounders” (a Congressional insider), would we even know about this? Why is this important to you and me?
Well, the word is out, and my local 9-12/Tea party organization sent this out this morning. First thing to hit my mailbox, in fact…
There is a bill to make Puerto Rico a state. Again, they are trying to pull one over on us and on Puerto Ricans, who have consistently said they do not want to become a state. Read below for more information (from Eagle Forum). This was also discussed by Rep Tom Price on a conference call yesterday.
Please consider this:
* 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 of 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.
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.
* Contact your US congressmen AND (Take quick action here)
They’re not going to do that.
The point of Puerto Rican statehood is MITIGATING damage from this coming election. Not making the damage worse.
I also take offense that your argument seems to amount to “Americans are racist and want to hold Puerto Rico back”.
It’s funny that racists can only be white Americans.
Remember, they have their analysts, and pollsters, and they know they are going to LOSE anyway. Nothing they can do about it so they're probably prepared to make a deal.
It wasn't a whole lot different than the modern equivalents.
And don’t forget American Samoa.
I’m ignorant about new states, but is there NO mechanism for
‘the several states’ being able to approve/ratify a new state?
I mean, what if the RATS wanted to grant a leper colony, or a tiny island whose only industry is drug smuggling or money laundering or internet gambling?
What if we decided to make Bikini Island a state and had to incur massive responsibility for nuclear waste messing up coral reefs discovered afterwards?
The several states have no say, other than booting their reps who voted for it?
New states can be erected out of existing states, or a state, with the approval of the state, but Congress must still vote that state into existence.
I believe the people of Illinois would leap at the chance to cleanse themselves of Chicago.
Exactly.
Only one reason (well .. maybe two)
V O T E S ...... V O T E S ...... V O T E S
And .. for those CITIZENS of Puerto Rico who don’t speak ENGLISH .. spin city will be in overdrive.
THIS ISN’T PANIC MODE .. THIS IS TOTAL DESPERATION MODE.
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OK not going ot happen but maybe we could get as many conservatives moving out of liberal hell holes and let those states go to hell
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Happening more than you might think. I left San Francisco four years ago for Savannah. Got tired of the never ending shit stench and $6 milk. Way to go, Gavin.
Was just looking at a new earthquake fault map of California...I am right on top of one...damn...time to think about moving back to the High Desert.
That would change the Senate and the House and probably take a while to get the representatives elected thus probably postponing the upcoming mid term elections.
Of course this info may not be true.
This country is getting curiouser and curiouser.
That is the objective and to get all the illegals in the southwest eligible to vote.
And the convicted felons...
They also want to give DC an electoral vote. This is a slap at state sovereignty and Federalism.
Their “fair share” of the federal taxes they don’t pay as a territory ?
Unbelievable. Source is Breitbart's BigGovernment.com. Authors: Kristinn Taylor and Andrea Shea King.
Carving a new state out of the Orange county south to the Mexican border in CA would also result in a Red state — 8 million people and 20,000 square miles ought to qualify as a state, don’t you think ?
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