Posted on 10/04/2017 6:22:54 AM PDT by GIdget2004
White House budget chief Mick Mulvaney said Wednesday he wouldn't take President Trump's comments about wiping out Puerto Rico's debt "word for word."
"I wouldn't take it work for word with that," he said.
"I talked the president about this at some length yesterday as we flew home on Air Force One."
Mulvaney said now, the administration is focused on making sure the island is safe and "that we're rebuilding the island."
"Dealing with the challenges that Puerto Rico had, the island is at least $72 billion in debt, $120 if you go by other counts, before the storm," he said.
"We are going to focus our attention right now on rebuilding the island, repairing the island, making sure everybody is safe and that we get through this difficult times."
Mulvaney said right now, the administration doesn't want to deal with the "fundamental difficulties" Puerto Rico had before the storm.
Trump said Tuesday that the U.S. would have to “wipe out” Puerto Rico’s multi-billion dollar debt after Hurricane Maria.
"They owe a lot of money to your friends on Wall Street and we're going to have to wipe that out," Trump said during an interview with Fox News. "You can say goodbye to that."
(Excerpt) Read more at thehill.com ...
Bill Clinton so loved Puerto Rico, that he and the Dem controlled congress got rid of tax breaks for US based businesses and manufacturers that eliminated either import or other taxes of PR produced products coming into the mainland that the businesses left PR and the economy crashed, leaving it what it is today.
No fed bailout for p r. Any storm rebuilding by the feds to be strictly on a loan basis.
They can’t pay back the loans they aready have. Why give them any more?
My impression is that the PR’s economy took a hit when they ended the tax breaks given to industries that located there. Being that they are 500 miles out into the ocean, there are added costs to any enterprise located there, which the tax breaks sought to offset. NAFTA, for example, was viewed as hurting PR as it encouraged companies to look south of the border rather than out into the Atlantic.
Heavy industry would probably never locate there, but light industry did before and could again. Of course, we still have the problem of getting companies to stop fleeing to China, which is a lot further away than San Juan.
Still... there may be other things they can do to turn things around besides just restructuring the debt.
Why give charity, setting precedent? Especially to a proven inept governmental system.
Strategy. Open the extremes as possible, persuade people to negotiate generously. Give creditors a reason to work out a good solution, rather than just demanding eternal interest payments.
Gee, maybe Trump will also wipe-out my debt.
Trump’s a business man. He says what he feels, when he says it, then forms policy later.
Is that a misprint or a real number? how can so few people get so deep in debt?
US and European manufactures would rather go to China than PR for the same reason they prefer China to Africa, WORK ETHIC.
Banks who know the feds will bail them out.
And note that PR’s power monopoly gives away a lot of free electricity to government units and others politically connected, to the point where a bunch of that total debt belongs to them.
This was just Trump’s opening salvo in renegotiating the debt on their behalf. Notice he didn’t say the U.S. was going to bail them out. He said, “Whoever, Goldman Sachs, get ready, pfft, it’s gone.”
According to my friend who grew up there the political parties on the island are beyond corrupt and both managed to piss away all of the receipts of the pharm tax break windfall they once enjoyed on worthless government jobs for every relative and friend you can imagine.
There ought to be incentives for private investment to rebuild their infrastructure. A private company needs to run the power company, toll roads with a discounted toll for natives would mostly be paid for by tourists. Get a bunch of resorts to build (anywhere but San Juan) if they build to withstand any future hurricane that island would be a great playground. Maria may have actually done a favor by wiping out homes that are unfit to withstand a storm if they are replaced by homes that are sturdy.
Thanks I appreciate it, but 70 to 120 billion?
I hope you’re wrong about the bailout.
I don’t recall Trump setting a specific timeline for bailing out Puerto Rico’s debt or did I miss that date?
Catholics tend to have very large families. ;o)
According to Mulvaney Trump’s not talking about a federal bailout. He’s talking about a debt restructuring similar to bankruptcy. It’s the Wall St. banks that loaned them the money that would have to take the hit. The ones who made the bad loans in the first place. He’s recognizing the reality that there’s no realistic way for PR to pay them back.
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