Puerto Rico is fully a part of the US as it is. Its present commonwealth status simply affords it the level of autonomy that other US states would have if the 9th and 10th ammendments were observed.
With only 4 million inhabitants it probably only rates one seat in Congress, hardly worth the trouble.
Puerto Rico would immediately send 2 of the most fiscally and socially liberal Senators and 6 to 8 similarly liberal Representatives to the U.S. Congress
Actually, the percentage of Repubs to Demos in Puerto Rico is equivalent to any other state with a Democratic governor, that is, about 46% to 48%. The Demos have a slight edge. The only exception is that they do tend to be pro-life either way.
The island is fairly prosperous. Refining has been hurt, as there isn't enough profit margin to compete with mainland refineries when your market is the mainland. Pharmaceutical plants are expanding, even without the tax break.
Overall, the economy is quite good. There is plenty of employment, wages are about 2/3 of mainland wages, which in Caribbean terms is not bad. The infrastructure is in good shape, people live well. There is less obvious misery than you see in an average American city, in fact I would say that there is "way" less. It is in many ways a much healthier place to raise kids than the average mainland city.
The basic problem PR faces is its distance from its markets and its suppliers. This makes it difficult to compete in some industries, especially as its relatively high wages mean it cannot compete with low wage competitors like Mexico and the like. NAFTA has not been their friend.
But the employment that is there is fairly high tech.
The U.S. Taxpayers will receive absolutely nothing of value in return for all of these BILLIONS, if Puerto Rico was offered statehood.
Its hard to measure what the US "gets" if PR is "offered" statehood. Puerto Rico is already part of the US. It isn't going away. It is already one of the nicer places to live in the US. Quibbling about statehood versus commonwealth is more about dotting i's and crossing t's. Essentially, it makes little difference either way. Either way, they are we.
The $18 billion dollars plus in cash that we gift Puerto Rico every year is what keeps this whole house of cards standing.
There's not a true fiscal/social conservative on the whole damn island. Puerto Rico's Republicans are bigger RINOs than you'd ever find stateside.
Independence should be their only option. They're blood-sucking leeches.
Marron, maybe you can name a couple fiscally/socially conservative Republican politicians in Puerto Rico that are Ronald Reagan style Republicans. You know, for smaller government, less Welfare from the U.S. and lower taxes.
AuH2ORepublican, maybe you can tell us what happened to these 4 terrorists in Puerto Rico.
4 Protesters held for allegedly throwing Molotov cocktails at Navy on Vieques
The majority of Puerto Ricans love the United States and the Navy so much that they wouldn't allow the corrupt courts in Puerto Rico to just dismiss the charges against 4 terrorists and let them all walk, would they?
The cries for justice would be deafening, if that happened, no?