Hey. I agree with you 100%. My father is a proud American before Puerto Rican. And he is quite conservative too. He has lived in the US (mainland) since 1951 and worked for GM for 35 years. And he has always voted Republican and raised all of us to speak English. I was born here and I am American first. All I was trying to say was that Puerto Rico , as it appeared by the post I responded to, was not once a dictatorship like much of Latin America. There are many true patriotic Americans of Puerto Rican descent living here and in Puerto Rico. I get concerned when certain peoples are painted with a wide brush. Most of my relatives still reside in PR and most of the males were in the US military, many as officers in the Army and Navy. If Puerto Rico is now a burden on the US and of no strategic or economic use, then by all means we should cut the purse strings and set her adrift. Be prepared, however, for mass movement of people from the island to the mainland if this happens. Remember, they are all American citizens and can make this move freely.
"Be prepared, however, for mass movement of people from the island to the mainland, if this happens." There are less than 4 million people living in Puerto Rico, now. They all wouldn't leave under any circumstances.
Anyone born in Puerto Rico is a 'statuatory' U.S. citizen. They received their U.S. citizenship by an 'Act of Congress' and their citizenship could be taken away by an 'Act of Congress'.
If the United States cut Puerto Rico loose and in the future could keep its $18.8 billion U.S. Taxpayer's dollars plus each year, bring home all of those thousands of federal jobs and those additional thousands of manufacturing jobs, the country wouldn't even notice an influx of 1 or 2 million additional, future, U.S. Tax-paying citizens from Puerto Rico.
Heck, that many illegal aliens cross our borders every year from all over the world.
Let all of those billions of U.S. Taxpayer's dollars be used to build roads, schools, bridges, dams and URBAN TRAINS, here in the USA.
Maybe those additional, U.S. Taxpaying, Puerto Rican-Americans would help us in our struggle to get our government to secure our borders with the U.S. military. ;^)