Posted on 04/10/2018 9:24:11 AM PDT by rktman
For the past few weeks, Puerto Rico has been subjected to a multitude of actions by our political class and the oversight board related to the handling of our current debt and fiscal crisis that would make left-wingers such as Nicolás Maduro proud. The actions being undertaken are a response to the current policy clash between the government of Ricardo Rossello and the Fiscal and Oversight Management Board about the host of fiscal plans to be adopted by the commonwealth. As the island heads to its next fiscal year, and the island is still recovering from the disaster of Hurricane Maria, the actions undertaken raise an important question. Does the obvious problem in governance in the commonwealth require an extreme action like repealing Law 600 and Congress imposing direct rule?
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
No.Let Puerto Rico go it’s own way and become an Independent country.We have No need for that Island any more.
No...move the Puerto Ricans to California, then, cut California loose from the USA.
Then, move all the Never-Trumpers, liberal, media, and RINOs, and people who threatened to leave if Trump got elected, to the Island.
If they give us any shit, then cut them off from everything.
We have No need for that Island any more.
They will be an albatross around America’s neck.
And I can tell you first hand they hate white Americans
Exactly. The United States does not an entire country almost exclusively populated by welfare recipients.
I agree. We should declare Puerto Rico’s independence but not before we abolish chain migration.
Put it up For Sale , $1
Puerto Rico will never be ‘first world’ because their culture sucks.
Puerto Rico made an unrecoverable mistake when they let the left wing essentially run The US Navy and Air Force out of Puerto Rico.
I lived and worked there for three years as a civilian,and the Roosevelt Roads Navy base, Fort Buchanan, the Marine base in Vieques and several other installations, pumped huge numbers of dollars into the economy with wages paid, vendors, etc., etc. When the military left, the economy started its downward plunge.
The PR dems wanted the land for Puerto Rican use. Now that they have it, what do they have??
You had one of the best comments here.
Could we get three or four US states to adopt portions of PR into their state territories?
(But which states would actually want to do it?)
Sell it to a cruise line. The Republic of Carnival. Seriously, if it were run correctly, senior citizens would be living there, vacationing there, and taking cruises that stopped there. It would be self-sufficient and safe.
My thoughts too, right down to the choice of words.
Well, back in ‘69 (you know, back in the last century) I spent the night in the Naval Hospital there after getting sick underway and having to transferred to a tug outside the harbor at night. Strapped in a stokes stretcher going over the rail. YIKES!
Are you kidding? Pay Spain to take it off our hands!
spooky experience - but on the bright side; had you fallen, it would be into warm water.
we enjoyed PR. Living in a small town outside of San Juan, we were probably the only gringos and we were incorporated into community life even though our knowledge of Spanish was limited. Good folks.
A major mistake made by PR was dumping the Navy and other bases from the island. It’s a beautiful place but needed a more honest government decades ago.
It’s doubtful many on this page have spent any time there...
Clinton created the economic crisis in PR
Tax Policy Helped Create Puerto Rico’s Fiscal Crisis
June 30, 2015
By Scott Greenberg, Gavin Ekins
Yesterday, the governor of Puerto Rico announced that his government’s $72 billion of debts are not payable, in advance of $1.92 billion in debt service payments due on Wednesday. This announcement follows over a year and a half of uncertainty about Puerto Rico’s ability to meet its financial obligations, including a downgrade of its government bonds to junk status and discussions about the possibility of a partial government shutdown.
As waves of shock from the announcement ripple through bond markets and the news media, it is worth reflecting on the role that taxes played in creating the current crisis. The treatment of Puerto Rico in the United States federal tax code helped create the island’s current fiscal situation, and the failure of Puerto Rico’s government to reform its tax code exacerbated matters further.
I. Section 936 and Puerto Rico’s Nine-Year Recession
Throughout the modern economic history of Puerto Rico, one of the central drivers of its economic growth has been the United States tax code. For over eighty years, the federal government granted various tax incentives to U.S. corporations operating in Puerto Rico, in order to spur the industrialization of the island. Most recently, beginning in 1976, section 936 of the tax code granted U.S. corporations a tax exemption from income originating from U.S. territories.
In addition to section 936, the Puerto Rican corporate tax code gave significant incentives for U.S. corporations to locate subsidiaries on the island. Puerto Rican tax law allowed a subsidiary more the 80% owned by a foreign entity to deduct 100% of the dividends paid to its parent. As such, subsidiaries in Puerto Rico had no corporate income tax liability as long as their profits are distributed as dividends.
When section 936 was in effect, U.S. corporations benefited greatly from locating subsidiaries in Puerto Rico. Income generated by these subsidiaries could be paid to U.S. parents as dividends, which were not subject to U.S. corporate income tax under section 936, and were deductible from Puerto Rico’s corporate income tax.
Because of these generous tax incentives for business, Puerto Rico grew rapidly throughout the 20th century and developed a substantial manufacturing sector, though it remained relatively poor compared to the U.S. mainland. However, because section 936 made foreign investment in Puerto Rico artificially attractive – creating, in effect, an economic bubble – it left the island vulnerable to a crash if the tax provisions were ever to be repealed.
As it happened, section 936 became increasingly unpopular throughout the early 1990s, as many saw it as a way for large corporations to avoid taxes. Ultimately, in 1996, President Clinton signed legislation that phased out section 936 over a ten year period, leaving it to be fully repealed at the beginning of 2006. Without section 936, Puerto Rican subsidiaries of U.S. businesses were subject to the same worldwide corporate income tax as other foreign subsidiary.
http://taxfoundation.org/blog/tax-policy-helped-create-puerto-rico-s-fiscal-crisis
I am told that only about 10% of PR people want independence. Many of the rest want to maintain the current status, and a fair number want statehood.
If you are interested, an interesting comparison would be the period when Washington, DC was taken over by a Control Board for a number of years until fiscally responsible. Alice Rivlin a well known economist was on that board. There are a number of articles at this Google listing.
Bunch of losers saying to cut them loose, but, I have a better idea.
Cut California loose or give it back to Mexico, and keep P.R.
P.R. is smaller and not as many headaches as California, and democrats would never again be able to claim that they got the popular vote count in presidential elections.
Republicans would win a lot more presidential elections, and the number of districts that come with California would be gone, and the U.S. would be automatically improved. Simple math: addition by subtraction.
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