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)
Thanks for not explaining anything
Now they're using the country's last years of its existence as a globalist laboratory of a fascist police state akin to Nazi Germany.
PLEASE, PLEASE call your congresscritters!! Our country be damned....the PROGRESSIVES from both parties are determined to powergrab the Hispanic vote in such a way that WILL “fundamentally transform” this nation.
Please name a republican progressive. Thank you.
John McCain
I have NO idea why Pence and Issa are co-sponsors and Marsha Blackburn abd Thaddeus McCotter are also listed too!
Heartbreaking stupidity!
This is unforgivable. I am done with Pence.
Rep. Luis Gutierrez: Why the Rush on the Puerto Rico Statehood Bill?
H.R. 2499, the Puerto Rico statehood bill was brought to the House this week after a surprise announcement last Thursday. Debate on this bill has been severely limited by the way Democratic Leaders are managing the process. Democratic Puerto Rican Members of Congress are being shut out of the process and will be severely limited in their ability to debate the bill and offer amendments.
In my opinion, this bill is the political equivalent of a shady Goldman Sachs derivative: It’s secretive. It lacks transparency. It’s likely to blow up down the road and cause systemic risk to out democracy. And those who put this political derivative together don’t really tell you what this is really about and will play dumb when it explodes.
I get more time to debate renaming a Post Office than I will get to debate a bill that could make Puerto Rico the fifty-first state.
When a similar Puerto Rico bill came up under Speaker Newt Gingrich’s Republican controlled Congress a decade ago, it was the product of lengthy and thorough hearings and an open and fair process. Now, under Democratic Leadership, we get one hearing, no forewarning, no companion Senate bill, and a debate only a few seconds longer than a NASCAR pit-stop.
What’s the rush? Something is wrong with this picture. It just does not add up.
t is designed to craft an artificial majority for statehood where none exists now. Every time the people of Puerto Rico have been consulted on this issue through a plebiscite they’ve said NO to Statehood. NO to Statehood in 1967. NO to Statehood in 1993. NO to Statehood in 1998. This should be called the “Don’t you dare say NO to Statehood Bill”.
Why is it that the when the people of the District of Columbia repeatedly and overwhelmingly ask for Statehood, Congress ignores them, and when the people of Puerto Rico, who have never asked for statehood and who have actually said ‘no’ to statehood three times get this statehood bill pushed on them in a rush…with little or no debate?
For the first time I can remember, I am planning to vote against the rule crafted by my party to govern the floor debate of this bill (H.R. 2499). It is a vote I did not expect to have to cast and is a deep disappointment. But I’m left with no choice.
Have contacted my congressman. Please refresh my memory on this type of bill. IF it passes the House, then what? Does it go to the Senate for passage too? Do the states have to ratify it? I am really shocked at the conservative names on the list of co-sponsors. Is there something we are missing here?
Congressman Darrell E. Issa is on Facebook
Gale Grinde Moroney Say NO on HR2499 - Puerto
Rico!!!!!!It’s all smoke & mirrors - a trick!
The past 3 times it was voted on (since 1963), they were asked a simple question:
Do You Want To Become A State? - and they voted no each time.
This time, they are passing it off to us as a ‘non-binding’ agreement.
When it’s put to the People of... PR, the question has been changed to:
Do You Want To Maintain The Current Status?
That is an entirely different question. If I was asked that, I’d say NO! Our current status sucks!
So - when all the unhappy people vote No & it passes, the next set
of Options will be:
—Do you want Statehood?
—Do you want Full Independence?
—Do you want Modified Commonwealth?
The only sensible option at that point is Statehood.
The others don’t get many votes & would cost them more.
They are being backed into a corner, like it or not, of becoming our 51st State.
Gale Grinde Moroney Please vote NO on HR2499 - Puerto Rico!!!!!!
Beth Eiess
Congressman, PLEASE don’t let the Puerto Rico House Bill pass.
Gale Grinde Moroney
WE DON’T NEED A 51st STATE!!!!!
Gale Grinde Moroney
What is your stand on this Puerto Rico thing?
Yesterday at 12:05pm · Comment · Like · Report
http://www.facebook.com/CongressmanIssa
Why not have Texas and PR just swap state/commonwealth statuses?
Win-Win.
Then Texas would have an easier time declaring it’s independance!
Issa,Pence,Blackburn and McCotter are co-sponsers? Unfreakinbelievable. Could it be possible they are voting on a procedural measure for strategic reasons? I just can’t believe they would go along with this?!!
I just don’t know what to make of it, but I see NOTHING TO LIKE ABOUT THIS “NON-BINDING” VOTE.
Furthermore, the Republican co-sponsors make me sick!
Yes, those four are co-sponsoers and there’s a couple more, but they are four that shocked me.
see post 148: Rep. Luis Gutierrez
Our “friend.” (Remember discussion with Clarence Thomas?)
I was going to pull up your “photo” (LOL) of him, but in this case, I decided it didn’t apply.
It would be interesting to project which states would lose a representative under this system. As I recall, Utah and Mississippi were marginal under the last redistricting...probably Maine, Massachusetts and/or Rhode Island as well.
This slipped under the radar. I was looking for comments by Issa on his reasoning. Could find none.
He hasn’t responded to his Facebook page. Wash Times on the ball back in Feb.
EDITORIAL: Puerto Rican run
The deck is stacked for statehood
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/feb/26/puerto-rican-run/
Rigging an election is nice work if you can pull it off. That’s what the Democratic majority in the U.S. House of Representatives appears to be trying to do as it votes next week on the misleadingly named Puerto Rico Democracy Act, which is designed to confer statehood on the island commonwealth by hook or crook. The bill is wrongheaded on so many levels that opponents in the Senate ought to filibuster it to death if it passes the House, as expected.
- - - - -
Just wow!
Everybody had better read the editorial thouworm just
linked!
The deck is stacked for statehood
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/feb/26/puerto-rican-run/
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