Sanders: Stop the Puerto Rico BAIL OUT!

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Bernie Sanders has announced his opposition to bipartisan plan to bail out Puerto Rico from it's crushing $70 Billion debt and $40 Billion in unfunded pension obligation.

If passed, the U.S. Government would create an appointed oversight board that would work with the Governor of PR to get PR out of debt and recession.

Sanders is threatening to return to the U.S. Senate for the first time this year to stop the bill, if the House passes it.



Sanders hasn't bothered to offer a different solution and chose to be absent from negotiations in order to campaign.

The President, Secretary of Treasury, and Speaker of the U.S. House says this is the best deal they are willing to give Puerto Rico.



To note PR Primary is June 5th, where Sanders is struggling to take the lead.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national ... story.html

They are colonial possession and have chosen to stay that way for whatever reason, I'd prefer they declare independence but I don't think they want to go at it on their own. I do not believe they should be a state, it would be a state twice as poor as our poorest state(Mississippi) with a murder rate almost 9x the average of the mainland United States, they do not consider themselves Americans first but rather Puerto Ricans and have their own distinct culture and language, it's a different country in my opinion.

To be fair companies face different rules and taxation imposed on them when operating in PR from the U.S. Government.
Operating in PR as multinational company, means special set of rules that only apply to PR thanks Congress imposing them to prevent business from shifting business from the mainland to PR.

The U.S. government actively discourages Americans from the mainland to move to PR, making it harder to do taxes and buying property in PR.

Puerto Rico has a very limited constitution imposed on them by U.S. Congress.
Puerto Rico has to seek congressional approval on numerous major issues before they can take effect.
Puerto Rico also has to seek congressional approval to amend it's constitution.
Essentially Congress holds the power over most major aspects of Puerto Rico, which is why Puerto Rico in it's current condition.

Puerto Rico has had the majority of it's people wanting statehood, but Congress is unwilling to take up the matter.
Puerto Rico has literally two options:

1) Convince Congress, mainly the GOP to stop blocking statehood (The GOP fears PR will swing heavily to the Democrats if admitted, since they believe hHspanics only vote Democrats.)
2) Leaving things in the unholy mess that they are.

Ever been to Louisiana?
It's culture is unique to it's self and the majority of the people there speak Creole and/or French and English second.
It's nothing like the rest of the country.

Even Texas, Hawaii, Oklahoma, and Alaska are so unique culture wise they have almost nothing in common with the rest of the states.

Puerto Rico being a state would benefit it far more than it's current legal position, giving it full governance.

Congress does not want Puerto Rico leaving the union and/or rejoining Spain.

No where close to a majority of people in Louisiana speak creole or French period let alone second to English. The states are not that different from each other, they don't speak different languages or consider themselves anything besides Americans. What you are saying is simply not true.

Also the majority of Puerto Ricans don't want statehood as they have voted on it time and time again, they had some bizarre ballot question a few years ago that was biased towards getting a statehood result but if you actually look at the results you'll realize that the majority of Puerto Ricans have no interest in becoming a state. They were asked if they should continue their territorial status yes/no and then given 3 choices not including the status quo so the governor of Puerto Rico who opposed statehood instructed his supporters to leave their ballots blank but that weren't counted in the final tally. Statehood got like 800,000 votes out of 1,800,000 cast, they didn't get anywhere near 50%.

I'm pretty sure Spain doesn't want Puerto Rico back and I think we'd be thrilled if they wanted independence but they don't think they can make it on their own.

Puerto Ricans want the unholy mess they are now more than they want statehood. Free Association like we have with the Marshall Islands, Palau, and Micronesia would probably be the most preferable for all our territorial possessions versus the status quo or statehood that can't happen. There is no benefit to the United States allowing Puerto Rico in the union, it would have to pass congress and if there is no benefit then why would anybody vote for it? The delicate balance of power is just one part of it, Puerto Rico really brings nothing to the table for the rest of the country, what type of concessions would they be willing to give up? Would they give up the Spanish language?

You obviously never been to Louisiana... I have.
They consider themselves Lousianan not American.
Louisiana is Catholic, while the rest of the states are protestant majority
Louisiana has parishes instead counties
Louisiana has French culture instead of Anglo-American culture
Louisiana uses non American measurements in cooking and other stuff
Louisiana is still refusing to fully implement federal laws
Louisiana has a growing secession movement.

The point is Louisiana and it's people are still refusing to fully integrate into the union and fully accept American culture and reject their own culture.

Texas has growing support for a succession movement each passing year and even growing portion of "WHITE Texans" who don't consider themselves Americans but merely Texans.
Texans hate the fact that they are being imposed upon from outside (the rest of the country).
In 2014 36% of Texans wanted to secede from the union because of culture and lack of home rule.
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/201 ... cceed.html
That number has grown to ~40% now with many wanting to put it to a vote.
They also argue the legality of Texas accession to the union.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/10/us/se ... .html?_r=0

Oklahoma also has a rising succession movement because well they follow Texas on everything and many there want to put it to a vote. They don't like being bossed around by the North.

Hawaii is demanding home rule, claiming the country ignores it at every turn.
Even China is threatening to arm Hawaiian separatist
http://freebeacon.com/national-security ... -interest/

Alaska's fastest growing political party is the Alaskan Independence Party AKIP.
http://www.akip.org/
An ever growing number of Alaskans want to secede from the union, with many also wanted to join with Russia.
They claim that Alaskan statehood is a fraud to keep Alaska as a defacto Colony by the Federal Government
http://www.akip.org/StatehoodFraud.pdf
They claim they are the worst off in the country and they are purposely being held back by the Federal government.
They plan to force a ballot measure within the next 10 years.


All of these states are as culturally different as PR, NMI, Midway, GUAM, and even America's hat from the mainland.

Please go visit the South and the isolated territories to see how they have almost nothing in common with the North.

Less than 3% of of Louisiana speaks French or Creole at home and it's mostly concentrated in the southern Bayou part of the state, the language is rapidly dying out too. In Hawaii, native Hawaiians make up less than less than 6% of the population. Those other secessionist movements are mostly right wing groups who oppose the federal government rather than opposing identifying themselves as American, I think secession will probably become a topic of discussion in the United States in our lifetime tho given how divided this country is. FWIW, even in Puerto Rico independence is unpopular since they know they cannot support themselves and need the US.

Sanders is just looking out for the poor, just like he always has.

https://berniesanders.com/issues/puerto-rico/

It seems that Sanders has offered an alternative plan.



http://www.reuters.com/article/us-puert ... SKCN0YE29H