Posted on 03/16/2012 6:43:37 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Presidential hopeful Rick Santorum on Thursday defended a condition he said Puerto Rico must meet to be eligible for statehood: "English needs to be the principal language."
Campaigning in the territory ahead of their Sunday primary, Santorum had on Wednesday said, "There are other states with more than one language, like Hawaii, but to be a state of the United States, English must be the principal language."
Speaking to CNN's National Political Correspondent Jim Acosta on Thursday, he stood by his comments.
"Obviously Spanish will be spoken here on the island. But this needs to be a bilingual country not just a Spanish speaking country," he said. "Right now it is overwhelmingly Spanish speaking but it needs to have in order for it to integrate into American society, English has to be a language that is spoken here also and spoken universally."
Puerto Rico designates both English and Spanish as official languages. There is no federal law stipulating an official language, but 31 states have adopted measures and Congress has included adoption of English as a requirement for statehood in previous cases.
Voters will be surveyed on their interest in statehood in a November referendum.
Asked by a reporter if the language issue would be a deal breaker, Santorum said he considers the matter important.
"I think that would be a condition," he said. "I think it's important."
(Excerpt) Read more at politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com ...
Good for Rick. He’s right.
Whatever Lil’ Ricky. Might as well wash Mitt’s feet while your at it.
What’s the big deal here?
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The attitude is the big deal ... quite simply they will never vote for statehood because it would interfere with the GIMME GIMME GIMME mentality ...
I don't see why Santorum is even talking about this. It doesn't win either Hispanic or non-Hispanic votes and just takes the focus off the harm Obama is doing to the country.
I’m so glad Rick is all over the serious issues affecting our country. Has he filled out his NCAA bracket yet?
Make English the National Language and it takes care of the whole mess we’ve gotten ourselves into with our diversity cr**.
“Why statehood? Just declare independence — The Republic of Puerto Rico.
The Philippines became independent over 70 years ago and their democracy is still thriving and they’re still friendly to America.
Why can’t Puerto Rico be the same?”
In complete agreement.
Puerto Rico should NEVER become a state. Rather, if anything, it should be granted independence and “go its own way”.
The real question regarding Puerto Rican statehood should be, “would the USA be better off with or withOUT Puerto Rico as a state?”
I believe we would be better off withOUT the island.
Statehood for P.R.? No thanks....
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