cut that POS lose, rename it New-Haiti and be done with it...
Posted on 02/01/2006 5:48:44 AM PST by cll
The status question, after years on the back burner, will dominate Puerto Rican politics this year. The event that signaled the launch of intense campaigning on the issue by all three of the island’s political parties was the publication in Washington last month of a report commissioned by President Bush.
The report, compiled by an interagency task force, recommended that there should be a federal plebiscite this year on whether Puerto Rico wants to maintain its current status as a territory or commonwealth (estado libre asociado, ELA) of the United States or choose a nonterritorial alternative.
In the latter case, the report suggested that the U.S. Congress, which has responsibility for Puerto Rican affairs through the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, should organize another plebiscite, offering voters a choice between statehood, on the one hand, and independence or free association with the United States, on the other.
These recommendations, predictably, have had a mixed reception. While the opposition Partido Nuevo Progresista (PNP) and Partido Independentista Puertorriqueno (PIP) welcomed the report, the ruling Partido Popular Democratico (PPD) rejected it because the options put forward do not include an enhanced version of the present status.
With both sides lobbying Congress to get across their views, Gov. Anibal Acevedo Vila claims to be confident that the U.S. legislature will not turn the report into law this year.
Acevedo Vila returned to San Juan on Jan. 19 from a meeting with his main ally in Congress, Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), to proclaim that there was widespread opposition, or indifference, in Congress to the report’s recommendations and that the proposal to hold a federal plebiscite was doomed.
Menendez, a Cuban-American, is a member of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, and thus in a position to know. The minority leader in the House, Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), seems to share Menendez’s doubts about the White House report.
However, the governor’s announcement is unlikely to put off the PNP, which also has some useful Washington contacts.
The party is convinced that statehood will become a reality this year and is preparing a campaign based on the argument that Puerto Rico’s “colonial” status is against the spirit of the U.S. constitution. The PNP strategy, devised by the party’s president, former Gov. Pedro Rossello, consists of pushing through the Puerto Rican legislature a resolution urging the U.S. Congress to turn into law the recommendations of the task force’s report, as the Puerto Rico Democracy Act, and then persuading Congress to act on the resolution.
As the PNP has a majority in both houses, and the island’s resident commissioner in Washington, who has a voice but not a vote in the House of Representatives, is also from the PNP, this process is already well under way. The island’s Senate passed the resolution Jan. 18, with the PPD minority voting against, and it now has to be approved by the lower house.
The resolution provides for the creation of an 18-member joint committee of the two houses to handle all aspects of the status issue. Rossello has his eye on the chairmanship of this committee.
The PNP is also planning direct action, in the form of a pro-statehood crusade to Congress early this month, led by the PNP vice president, Miriam Ramirez de Ferrer, bearing a 100,000-signature petition, and a 15-day march around the island in the second half of February.
The PIP, which represents the views of about 5 percent of Puerto Rican voters, is equally enthusiastic about the White House report, calling it a “mortal blow” to the ELA and a first step toward the end of colonialism. Like the PNP, it wants the federal plebiscite suggested in the report to take place this year. However, if the U.S. Congress fails to act, it is calling for a constitutional assembly to be elected in the island.
Acevedo Vila has also called for such an assembly in the past, without success. His argument is that what he calls a “true process of self-determination” should begin on the island, not in Washington, but the White House report “insults” Puerto Ricans by failing to provide for such a process.
The report takes the view that the 1952 ELA accord is a transitory arrangement (which is also the PNP’s position), rather than a pact that can be modified by agreement between the two sides (the PPD view). Acevedo Vila argues that voters should be offered the option of supporting a modified version of commonwealth status, giving the island’s government greater control over such areas as federal appointments, taxation and trade negotiations.
Rejecting calls from some PPD politicians to manufacture a “crisis” over the issue, Acevedo Vila appears reassured that Congress would not support legislation on Puerto Rican status that does not enjoy a consensus in the island itself and is not backed by the governor.
A continuing feud between Rossello and Resident Commissioner Luis Fortuño, and a long-running tussle for control of the Puerto Rican Senate between Rossello and a group of PNP senators led by the current president of the upper house, Kenneth McClintock, complicates the PNP’s campaign.
Fortuño refuses to return to the island to attend PNP executive meetings chaired by Rossello, arguing that his time is better spent cultivating Republican contacts in Washington.
Despite his reservations about Fortuño, Rossello felt obliged Jan. 18 to appoint him as the PNP’s official liaison with the Republican Party. (Former Gov. Carlos Romero Barcelo has been given the same role with the Democrats.)
Underlying the power struggle between Rossello and Fortuño is competition for advantage ahead of the 2008 elections. Rossello sees a successful statehood campaign as the best way of gearing up the party machine to back his candidacy. However, McClintock’s group could yet deny him chairmanship of the status committee.
Meanwhile, Acevedo Vila has been trying to recover the political initiative by submitting a long-awaited tax-reform proposal to the island’s legislature in mid-January. However, the PNP majority is determined to block it — not least because the measures would give the governor additional resources for high-profile public works ahead of the next election campaign.
The formal reason the PNP has given for rejecting the reforms is that they contain no provision for reducing public spending and would only benefit the wealthy at the expense of the middle classes. Acevedo Vila badly needs the tax reforms, as the credit-rating agencies have threatened to downgrade Puerto Rican government bonds if they are not forthcoming.
The focus will be on Washington for most of this year, as Puerto Rico’s fate lies in the hands of Congress. The most likely outcome is that the task-force report will not become law.
Oxford Analytica is an international consulting firm providing strategic analysis on world events for business and government leaders. See www.oxan.com.
"but they will pay taxes like the rest of us."
Okay. Contact your Congressman and ask them to end this disparity once and for all. That's the whole point.
Much of it sounds to what they said when the Italians started migrating to the U.S.
I agree with you. PR deserves statehood...but where would we put the star? ;)
There are already several designs. One is in my profile. It is not my favorite, though.
I know it was a joke, but: 9,8,9,8,9,8
lets just cut them off
let them be independent that way we wont have to subisidize their existence
I constantly ask this question here in FR and never get an answer:
How exactly do you propose to cut off four million Americans? Like in a Stalinist purge?
31% of the population of Puerto Rico is employed in the public sector. That DOES NOT include police officers or civilian employees on military bases, that would bring that figure to close to 50%.
32.8% of personal income in Puerto Rico is attributable to TRANSFER PAYMENTS from Washington (ie welfare), as of 2003.
In 1989, Puerto Rico received 72 times more food stamps than Mississippi, half the island's population currently receives food stamps as of 2002.
THEY GET A HELL OF A LOT LESS THAN WE DOLE OUT TO PEOPLE THAT HATE US.
"significant minority of people opposed to any links with the United States, they will be a
constant and intense irritant to the political process."
Well, you in the mainland have close to half of your population consisting of characters like democrats, the ANSWER crowd, greenies and similar assortment of lefties, which are a constant and intense irritant to the political process already.
Make Puerto Rico a state and we have two more leftist Senators and several more leftist House members. Plus additional electoral votes for the Democrats in the presidential election. It'll be like adding a larger District of Columbia.
2. The folks were right to be concerned about the assimilation of Poles, Italians, Jews, Hungarians, etc. into the U.S., which is why we passed strict immigration laws in the 1920s.
3. I myself have never really cared too much about the cultural/racial aspects of PR statehood (aside from the languague and education issues). I am MOST CONCERNED with the fact that too much of the population is dependent on transfer payments and government employment for its livelihood.
As I have said several times, I believe that PR would be better off maintaining commonwealth status, and that American would be better off with independence. HOWEVER, if PR voted to become a state, I would welcome you with open arms, especially your sisters. ;-)
The 51-star flag does not look as nice as the 50-star flag (or the 48- or 49-star flags). But we wouldn't need a 51-star flag if we go straight to 52 by also admitting a "State of New Columbia" comprising Washington, DC and its close-in suburbs in Maryland and Virginia. Admitting New Columbia as a state would enfranchise the residents of DC while simultaneously making Virginia an overwhelmingly Republican state and making Maryland a GOP-leaning state. See http://auh2orepublican.blogspot.com/2005/08/fair-and-reasonable-alternative-to-dc.html
A 52 stars on the flag would be in 4 rows of 7 and 4 rows of 6, and would look like this:
* * * * * * *
* * * * * *
* * * * * * *
* * * * * *
* * * * * * *
* * * * * *
* * * * * * *
* * * * * *
Whis is not all that different from the 50-star flag:
* * * * * *
* * * * *
* * * * * *
* * * * *
* * * * * *
* * * * *
* * * * * *
* * * * *
* * * * * *
"How exactly do you propose to cut off four million Americans? Like in a Stalinist purge?"
lol pretty funny you have too much coffee or something?
allow me to clarify here - these guys pay no income tax (though i do think they pay Social Security), booted out our Naval testing site and complain that we keep them down. They want all benefits and no sacrifices of being within the US. They vote on same status everytime because there are three choices either become a state, become independent, or stay the same. Take it to a plebiscite and make two distinct choices - put up or shut up - either statehood or independence.
cut that POS lose, rename it New-Haiti and be done with it...
OK, my formating skills leave a lot to be desired. But the 52-star flag looks fine.
New Columbia would be interesting, but I would welcome the State of Alberta as well, IF they decided to join us. More oil please!
"HOWEVER, if PR voted to become a state, I would welcome you with open arms, especially your sisters. ;-)"
Thanks for that, really. I would just like to add:
Has it occured to anybody that the reason for our less than desirable demographics might be because the current system, ELA or commonwealth is broken? A system designed during the FDR/Truman era. If it ever worked at all.
Bootstrap was largely a failure that all of the drug making factories could not hide.
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