Posted on 06/15/2006 8:53:16 AM PDT by Ebenezer
(English-language translation)
The activity to commemorate Flag Day [in Puerto Rico] stressed the importance that supporters of statehood place on the billions of dollars the island receives in federal funds.
Scores of participants marched along Roosevelt Avenue towards the headquarters of the New Progressive Party (PNP) in Hato Rey, where they met other followers to total over 100 [attendees]. Although PNP Vice-Chairman Jorge Santini and House Speaker José Aponte were present at this proselytizing event, the absence of other leaders, including PNP Chairman Pedro Rosselló, was noticeable.
"We discussed a budget that can be $9.2, 9.4, or 9.6 billion, but what comes through this flag, $17 billion, and what we could receive if we were a state, not a territory of the nation," Aponte pointed out.
PNP Women organization chair Iris Miriam Ruiz, whose group organized the activity, also took the occasion to call for statehood. "If the supporters of independence are not tiring and they are few, much less should we, who are the majority who want statehood and which we will achieve," Representative Ruiz said.
The march left Fort Buchanan about 5:00 PM and arrived at PNP headquarters after 6:00 PM. People there displayed U.S. flags on different objects and were also handing out flags to drivers who passed by the premises.
As expected, there was a traffic jam.
The activity ended with the representatives, Santini, and others raising the American flag on a pole that was placed in front of the headquarters.
Senator Luis Daniel Muñiz lamented the absences of his fellow pro-statehood senators. "There was a noticeable absence of leaders. I am the senator who comes the farthest and I came, [and] I don't understand why the other colleagues couldn't attend," he commented.
ping
Statehood should not boil down to whether you get more federal aid.
Unfortunately, that's true. Too many statehood supporters in Puerto Rico have been fixated on how much more federal money the island would receive as a state. That does the statehood cause no favor and only helps those who like bigger and more expensive (and by no means better) government.
In order to attain statehood they have to get the thumbs up from the states themselves.
I don't see that happening.
A.) Because we don't need to add a boatload more democrats/liberals to the voting roles.
B.) because we don't need to add an additonal 2 democratic senators and however many house representatives.
C.) because we have no need to support what is essentially a third world country.
D.) Puerto Rico is unstable.
E.) The Republic would gain nothing by having Puerto Rico as a state.
It would be in everyone's best interest, Puerto Rico included, to cut it loose and have it be independant.
If I remember the results of some surveys taken, about 47-48 percent of the people in Puerto Rico want Puerto Rico to become a state. The same amount want Puerto Rico to remain a territory. A much smaller amount (5% or less) want P.R. to become independent.
If Puerto Rico is to become a state, it must adopt the English language, IMO. We don't need linguistic separatism in our country, like in Canada.
What they want and what would be best for the U.S. are two different things.
We should cut them loose.
That $17 billion is only for starters.
Does that number include the billions in federal income taxes that Puerto Rico subsidiaries of U.S. corporations are avoiding with the section 936 tax avoidance scam or by masquerading as Certified Foreign Corporations?
Does this number include all of the federal income taxes that could have been collected stateside from the employees of these corporations?
Does this number include the loss of the positive impact of the spending these these employees and corporations would have had on the stateside communities these jobs were hijacked from?
Does this number include the loss of the positive impact of the local taxes that could have been collected from these employees and corporations to the economies of the local communities these jobs were hijacked from?
Does this number include the benefit of the United States Postal Service facilities and employees have on the island and take into account the negative impact U.S. Postal Services losses on the island have on the increased cost of postage to the rest of us?
Does this number include the loss to stateside communities of all of the salaries, spending and infrastructure investment by every single federal agency you can name that has facilities on the island of Puerto Rico?
There are 200,000 to 300,000 veterans living on the island. Guess who most of them work for?
Think they were all born on the island or did they just follow the federal jobs squandered on the island?
Does this number include all U.S. military spending?
Just some questions for other U.S. Taxpayers that read this post to think about and get suitably outraged over.
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