Puerto Rico is suffering a debt and migration crisis that’s partly a result of its territorial status. In 2006, Congress removed a tax-incentive program to encourage investment in Puerto Rico. When U.S.-based companies pulled out and workers followed, the territory’s tax base collapsed. The Puerto Rican government issued bonds to finance its spending. These have been particularly attractive to investors because they are tax-exempt — because of the territory’s non-incorporated status.
Deep in debt, Puerto Rico is unable to declare bankruptcy, as U.S. jurisdictions within the 50 states can. Nor can it seek international assistance, as sovereign states might.
But even if voters resoundingly choose statehood, the Republican-majority Congress is unlikely to make the change. As a state, Puerto Rico would probably elect Democrats to the House and Senate and would increase Democratic votes in the electoral college.
It could happen under a D-majority Congress, which seems like a pipe dream right now but was a thing not so terribly long ago, before they committed the heinous sin of enacting Obamacare. Or it could happen if a comparably-sized conservative polity applied for statehood at the same time. I vaguely recall that they were near a bargain once where the Rs would approve Puerto Rico if the Ds would give them ______, but I can't remember what the trade was. That got scotched when PR voted against statehood, IIRC. Or my memory might be making shit up again. It does that.
Hehe I seem to recall them voting like HELL NO back in the late 80s or so.
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When my parents divorced, my mother decided to go on a vacation on her own to celebrate her new freedom, and chose Puerto Rico because it was close and relatively inexpensive.
When she returned and I asked her how she liked it, she said it was ok, but found the airport a little scary when she arrived (she had taken a night flight).
When I asked her why, she said it was because of the Puerto Ricans hanging out.
I spent 90% of the money I made on women, booze, and drugs. The other 10% I just pissed away.
How about we just let Puerto Rico go and be its own country? Pretty sure any purpose it might have had is not longer applicable - let them take their destiny in their own hands.
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Population would rank it #30.
Square mileage would rank it #49.
"The world is suffering more today from the good people who want to mind other men's business than it is from the bad people who are willing to let everybody look after their own individual affairs." - Clarence Darrow
DD* wrote:How about we just let Puerto Rico go and be its own country? Pretty sure any purpose it might have had is not longer applicable - let them take their destiny in their own hands.
Because their financial woes are in large part due to US exploitation of territory without the protections afforded to a state?
DD* wrote:How about we just let Puerto Rico go and be its own country? Pretty sure any purpose it might have had is not longer applicable - let them take their destiny in their own hands.
If Puerto Rico voted and mobilized for independence, I have zero doubt that we would let them go. But while there is an independence movement there, it's clearly in the minority at the moment - the island seems mostly divided between statehood and its current territory status.
Kraken wrote:It could happen under a D-majority Congress, which seems like a pipe dream right now but was a thing not so terribly long ago, before they committed the heinous sin of enacting Obamacare. Or it could happen if a comparably-sized conservative polity applied for statehood at the same time. I vaguely recall that they were near a bargain once where the Rs would approve Puerto Rico if the Ds would give them ______, but I can't remember what the trade was. That got scotched when PR voted against statehood, IIRC. Or my memory might be making shit up again. It does that.
That seems like the main argument one could use to motivate a Republican Congress to make a deal on admitting Puerto Rico. Find a deal, or they'll eventually be admitted by a democratic Congress without concessions.
I'd say something like split off the conservative inland parts of California to make their own state, but I assume California would object to that. Maybe find an unpopulated island and invite conservatives to found the proud new state of AynRandia?
“While we would be thrilled to confer statehood upon Puerto Rico, we unfortunately cannot do so until its citizens are on the whole as morbidly overweight as the rest of the United States,” Congressional leaders wrote in an official statement following Puerto Rico’s vote for statehood. “We would love to welcome this beautiful island and its vibrant citizens into the hallowed union of our great republic, but first thousands more Puerto Ricans must eat a lot of enormous turkey legs and fried foods loaded with saturated fats.”
This is no small task for Puerto Rico, which must boost its obesity rate from a paltry 28 percent to America’s robust 36 percent. Congress has made it clear: Until tens of thousands of Puerto Ricans start consuming irresponsible amounts of soda and processed foods and avoiding exercise at a truly American level, the path to statehood will remain closed.
"The world is suffering more today from the good people who want to mind other men's business than it is from the bad people who are willing to let everybody look after their own individual affairs." - Clarence Darrow