Gov. Pedro Pierluisi: ‘Puerto Rico will be the first truly Hispanic state’

[GMDino]

Here is a pretty good (long) transcript of a show about this issue.

https://theintercept.com/2020/12/18/deconstructed-puerto-rico-statehood/

Lots to consider on both sides but just a couple quick notes from the episode:

* Republicans seem to bring up the Democratic addition to the legislature more than the Democrats do.  There's a soundbite from  McConnell that sounds like he just cut words out of a DailyWire story and pasted them together like a ransom note:

Quote:"Sen. Mitch McConnell: They plan to make the District of Columbia a state — that would give them two new Democratic senators — Puerto Rico a state, that’d give them two more new Democratic senators. So this is a full-bore socialism."


* From the show: "...despite counting 3.1 million residents — so that’s more than the two Dakotas, Wyoming, and Vermont combined — Puerto Rico is not entitled to two voting senators or a commensurate number of House representatives."


* From the show: "...we move into the World War I-era, and we see that the United States grants Puerto Rican individuals the right to U.S. citizenship. But the 1917 bill, which was known as the Jones–Shafroth Act, was really not a lot more than a vehicle to draft Puerto Rican men into the American army."


* From the show:  "...before the imposition of the American Navy and Army into the Spanish colonies at the time, Puerto Rico enjoyed a fairly diverse agricultural economy. And as soon as America got its hands on Puerto Rico, it used it as an extractive sugar plantation, at one point sending over half of all production to the United States from Puerto Rico. It only got more inimical going forward. You see, in the 1910’s, or 1920, Congress passed what is known as the Merchant Marine Act, now we refer to it as the Jones Act. And that has the effect of making imports and dramatically more expensive for Puerto Rico; goods are marked up beyond measure.

Congress made it even worse in the 1970s, after enacting what was called Operation Bootstrap. They passed what was called Section 936, which was a tax break that allowed American companies to have offices, production facilities, what have you, in Puerto Rico, without having to pay any taxes that would redound to the benefit of Puerto Rico. It was essentially turning it into an offshore tax haven for major corporations. In fact, many of those industries, specifically pharmaceutical, Congress just allowed a rapacious industry that took out all of the resources and labor from Puerto Rico without ever paying anything back, which is one of the reasons why Puerto Rico’s cupboard is so bare to begin with, and I’m sure we’ll talk about that going forward."

Lot's of issues to look at but it really looks like we have treat PR as a plaything for our benefit without them having any representation in the government that is passing acts and laws about it.