The government of Puerto Rico ran a Ponzi Scheme for years.
3: PR could always be rejoined with the totally Hispanic Spain.
For years these clowns wanted independence. Now they want their cake and to be able to eat it too.
F*ck them. They live on an island that could print its own money from tourism but they choose sitting on their a$$es and waiting on those government checks to drop.
Independence, we do not want them as a state.
The people trying to turn us into North Mexico want them to be a state. The first Spanish speaking state.
These idiots only care because they want the two liberal Senators they would get out of statehood.
They can go pound sand.
Trade PR to China in exchange for all our debt they hold.
Independence it is, then.
How does Puerto Rico benefit us? Unless there’s a very good answer, expel it. “Once a State, always a State” does not apply to territories (e.g., the Philippines).
Ping.
One way I would allow PR in the country. Make it the sixth borough of New York City.
During my military ‘era’, I worked with a Puerto Rican who sat one day and drew out the whole mess.
In simple terms, if you had a hundred PR folks in a room....they’d give you a hundred variations of what they want or don’t want. In this nutshell, there is no way to appease folks. They do want jobs, but they don’t want taxation. They want the corruption driven out, but literally beg for corruption to work because the system is so screwed up.
It wouldn’t even surprise me....if they got statehood, and twelve months later....sixty-percent of the residents want it dissolved and to go back to the old system.
They want “independence” (no federal control) and U.S. citizenship.
What they should really do is just negotiate with a President and then get Congress to agree to modifications of their territorial status and relations with the federal government.
They do not really “need” to be able to elect federal officers or to be part of the U.S. Congress. There are issues that can be dealt with and improved upon by changes to federal laws and rules that affect Puerto Rico.
For instance, Puerto Rico with a much softer economy and lower standard of living is forced to apply federal minimum wage laws on its labor market. It’s stupid and only helps keep unemployed the folks with the least education and skills, worsening economic conditions in Puerto Rico. Congress and the president can pass and approve legislation that would change that.
Every issue that Puerto Rico has in its relations with the Federal government - outside of being politically integrated into the U.S, - can be resolved with Puerto Rican and federal officials that really want to resolve them, without any change in Puerto Rico’s basic status.
On the other hand, as U.S. Citizens, the men of Puerto Rico have on the whole made very fine U.S. soldiers when they chose to be.