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Puerto Ricans have chosen their lot, over and over again.

They have rejectd Statehood and Independence, while choosing to remain as they are.

They can't have their cake and eat it too.

BTW, the new Governor of PR is bvery anti-Bush, whining about the Iraq war, etc.

I think people from any country can serve in out military. I even think that if you are not a citizen, you get citizenship if you serve honorably. If I am wrong, I know there will be people here that will straighten me out.

At any rate, my take on Puerto Rico is that they have all the advantages of American Citizens, without the obligations, like PAYING INCOME TAXES!. Sounds like a good deal to me.

What Rep Fortuno should do is to agitate for Puerto Rico to become the 51st state, get all the Puerto Ricans into the "system"...then he won't have to be ashamed to look the brave Pureto Rican soldiers "in the eye".

"The conservatives turned out in Puerto Rico for the 2004 elections as well. Fortuno is the second Republican to hold the Puerto Rican seat in Congress since its creation. The first was Federico Degetau, who was elected in 1901."

Puerto Rico had last elected a Republican as Resident Commissioner in 1968; his name was Jorge Luis Córdova Díaz. And from 1901-1944 a lot of the Resident Commissioners from Puerto Rico were Republicans (not just Federico Degetau), since all statehooders were Republican and the pro-statehood party (which had several names through the years, but was known as the Statehood Republican Party for several decades) won on numerous occasions.

The Resident Commissioner elected in 1976 and 1980, Baltasar Corrada del Río, declared himself a Democrat when he got to Congress (probably because the House had a huge Democrat majority back then, and since the then-Governor of Puerto Rico, future Resident Commisioner Carlos Romero-Barceló, was a Democrat), but after Corrada del Río was elected Mayor of San Juan in 1984 he became a Republican and went on to preside over Puerto Rico's delegation at the 1988 Republican National Convention. Corrada del Río is now a Supreme Court Justice in Puerto Rico.

Just a small correction to the article re: Fortuño. The comment is made that residents of Puerto Rico "don't pay federal taxes". that statement is not altogether correct. Residents of Puerto Rico who work for the federal government pay federal taxes. Also, residents of the island who DON'T work for the federal government, don't pay federal INCOME tax. They do pay various other federal taxes, however, such as the social security tax, unemployment tax, etc.

I'm not sure if these numbers are right,m becouse I don't have the documents in front of me now, but the relative proportions are correct (in other words, we can change the numbers, but the relationship of one to another will remain the same).

It has been estimated that residents of Puerto Rico, if the island is admitted as a state, would pay about $2.2 billion in diverse federal taxes. Of these, approximately $1.8 billion are already being paid. So the "incremental tax burden" for the new state would not be that significant.

Of course, we are not discussing here whether the federal tax structure, as it exists, and current spending policies, are fair or even appropriate. That is a separate issue. I'm sure if various federal "sink-hole" programs were to be eliminated, the tax burden on ALL american citizens would be justifiably reduced.