Trump: FEMA can't stay in Puerto Rico forever

[Orbitus]

I don't think that advice is worth coming from you.

Ain't that the truth.

[Jastall]

They pay 0 Income tax (unless your a federal PR employee) So in general its not their tax dollars they are asking to help them... They do however pay taxes to PR..... which the PR government has squandered and ran into the ground.

They pay Social Security and Medicaid taxes and receive benefits but pay 0 Income tax to the US government.

They don't pay taxes because they have no representation in Washington. I recall Americans take this sort of thing quite seriously.

[Moshots]

They don't pay taxes because they have no representation in Washington. I recall Americans take this sort of thing quite seriously.

As I said the honest truth is the US doesn't want PR as a state... they are fine to help slightly support PR as a independent State but the reality is the risk factors of a state in the middle of the ocean that faces disaster every year is not worth the tax dollars for how few people actually live in PR. and for 100 years that has been fine the PR goverment collects its own income taxes and pays to rebuild every few years when a storm destroys shit The US oversee's and pays Social Security and Medicaid and collects for those.... Its just this storm was alot worse than they have seen in a long time and the PR goverment has been shitty recently and ran out of money....

The only reason PR is even part of the US is because back in the old land grab days everyone grabbed up as much land as they could for supremacy or w/e.... I guess there is something of a stategic position on PR for any wars we may have with our southern neighbors but still in general PR is a independent run government that is supposed to be self sufficient.

[Rasulis]

Texas pay's income taxes.... PR doesn't. Texan's paid something like 279 BILLION dollars in tax last year. 2nd only to California. PR residents paid 3.5 billion dollars in total tax's (due to 0% income tax for non federal employee's so most of that 3.5 bil is Social security and medicaid which they take back in)

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TBH its not worth it for the US to take them as a state... They are in the middle of the ocean They get destroyed by hurricanes every few years... The landmass in honestly not worth the cost of rebuilding it every year. There is a 0 net gain for the US to take on the responsibility that comes with making them a state. except for now being fully responsible for rebuilding every year when a hurricane comes and knocks everything down... It would be cheaper for the US to take every resident of PR and move them to the mainland and abandon PR than it would be to make them a state and have to fully pay to rebuild PR every year after hurricanes destroy 80% of the country which is why PR will never become a state. And unless the PR goverment learns to manage their country better its gonna get worse the next time a hurricane comes.

That is not bad considering TX has more than 76 times the land area of Puerto Rico. So 279 billion divided by 76 is equal 3.67 billion, and PR paid 3.5 billion according to you. So proportionally they are pretty close.

Your second paragraph pretty much is the reason why we should help them. If we don’t fix their infrastructure, they will move to the mainland.

[Edge-]

The only reason PR is even part of the US is because back in the old land grab days everyone grabbed up as much land as they could for supremacy or w/e.... I guess there is something of a stategic position on PR for any wars we may have with our southern neighbors but still in general PR is a independent run government that is supposed to be self sufficient.

That's not remotely true.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puerto...0.93present.29

The least you could do is check Wikipedia before making up your own version of US history.

[Moshots]

That's not remotely true.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puerto...0.93present.29

The least you could do is check Wikipedia before making up your own version of US history.

how is it not true?? we stole the land as a strategic landmass during a war we told them they couldn't become independent by force when they tried multiple times. then finally allowed them their own government and constitution while having their citizens be our citizens still with pretty much half rights... And now many years later once they started actually wanting statehood we ignore them because to be honest PR is more of a burden than it would worth as a state.... How has anything i said been wrong?

and to add from the wiki you linked.
Statehood might be useful as a means of dealing with the financial crisis, since it would allow for bankruptcy and the relevant protection. According to the Government Development Bank, this might be the only solution to the debt crisis

So we would take on a state just to allow them to declare bacruptcy and hurt the rest of the US on the national stage.

[Blur4stuff]

When dems take over for the 2020s they should make statehood for DC and PR a priority.

[Moshots]

When dems take over for the 2020s they should make statehood for DC and PR a priority.

Even the democrats arn't that stupid... Taking on PR right now with their financial crisis just to allow them to go bankrupt would send shockwaves through the international community... Not to mention run up the national debt even more because alot of what they owe is to us.

Also of note
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puerto...nt-debt_crisis

Clinton was the one who passed tax laws that basically stopped us covering PR's ass with subsidies in the mid 90's... Following that logic I'd assume the democrats would be just as happy as the republicans to have PR go fully independent and not become a state however PR in the last 20 years has gone from having Majority wanting Independence to having a near unanimous Alebeit contested 2012 vote (97% wanting statehood) after the US stopped paying the bills and PR realized they couldn't pretty much.

not the mention The way I read it the US would have been fine with PR trying to become a state in the 40's and 50's when we were helping them form their own goverment/ect (REMEMBER Alaska and Hawai became the 49th and 50th state in Jan and August 1959 so Congress was open to adding states at that time).... but they voted against attempting to become a state multiple times and voted for independence which we allowed it in a small way without giving up our place at the table... Now that the shoe is on the other foot and they have realized that once we started to give them more independence they have failed to run their own "country" and now they are basically begging to come back home after maxing out all their credit cards and getting kicked out of their apartment.


EDIT also to add if you want to get political yes the Republicans would also never allow it in today's current political climate due to the fact that according to what ive read 5 congressional seats and 7 electorial votes would be added given the population size and the odds are given the demographic of PR would mean 5 almost guaranteed Democratic seats in Congress and all but guarantee the presidency to democrats. But even with this said Financially its a shitshow so Its pretty much bipartisan at this point.

[Breccia]

Texas pay's income taxes.... PR doesn't.

Yeah, but they do pay pretty much all the other federal taxes. They pay roughly $1,000 each to the federal treasury per year. Little more, actually.

[Acidbaron]

I mean it has to be a point though... PR isn't a state.... we shouldn't be fully responsible for bailing out their bad decisions they can't rebuild because their government is inept and ran them into the ground..... Now they expect the US to rebuild everything and fix all their problems and make the US pay for it all.... the government is refusing to take on loans to rebuild themselves they just want hand outs from the US government above and beyond what their status as a territory qualifies them for.

Not to mention that non federal employee's in PR pay 0 Federal income tax (they do pay and recieve Social Security and Medicaid taxes and receive benefits)... So in general the Goverment of PR should hold some responsibility in rebuilding themselves and not the actual tax payers of the US.

I get it, it's an unamerican thing to do. Help your fellow countrymen. Socialism and all that. Meanwhile other nations did go out and send support and even better it wasn't a political issue or even something people stood divided on, it is just simply expected to be normal behavior that you help another out.

"Christian Nation" Funny how little those values mean when it comes to things that matter as in not restricting rights of others.

It also makes you look rather poor and weak for a nation that cannot aid their own, while claiming to be richest nation in the world.

[Mormolyce]

Puerto Rico needs to understand that it being without power, flooded and smashed to bits is all well and good, but the President has more important things to take care of right now like grandstanding at the NFL on the public dime and dedicating trophies at golf tournaments.

Look, he gave them magically soft paper towels that can be felt through the plastic.

What the fuck more does Puerto Rico want?

To be fair, they were "paper towel" brand paper towels. I imagine they felt indistinguishable from the surrounding plastic.

I would think the statement that FEMA can't stay in Puerto Rico forever would be self-evident and not controversial... but then, Trump's public critics are anything but sane.

I can see how you would think that if context is an alien concept to you and you wake up every day mystified about how everything on the planet works.

[Moshots]

I get it, it's an unamerican thing to do. Help your fellow countrymen. Socialism and all that. Meanwhile other nations did go out and send support and even better it wasn't a political issue or even something people stood divided on, it is just simply expected to be normal behavior that you help another out.

"Christian Nation" Funny how little those values mean when it comes to things that matter as in not restricting rights of others.

It also makes you look rather poor and weak for a nation that cannot aid their own, while claiming to be richest nation in the world.

PR had it chance to become a state and they wanted to stay independent and voted for it multiple times over the last 100 years... When we were taking states in the 50's they still voted to stay independent.... until now they are in crippling debt and have had natural disasters and now they want to act like were the bad guys for not making them a state when 2012 is the first time they even asked to become a state and that was only after they had already amassed 60 Billion in debt over the last 10 years since Clinton cut them off and stopped subsidizing business to PR..

[Edge-]

PR had it chance to become a state and they wanted to stay independent and voted for it multiple times over the last 100 years...

What year(s) was this, again?

[Grapemask]

PR had it chance to become a state and they wanted to stay independent and voted for it multiple times over the last 100 years... When we were taking states in the 50's they still voted to stay independent.... until now they are in crippling debt and have had natural disasters and now they want to act like were the bad guys for not making them a state when 2012 is the first time they even asked to become a state and that was only after they had already amassed 60 Billion in debt over the last 10 years since Clinton cut them off and stopped subsidizing business to PR..

Your gymnastics are starting to get so complex that we're going to need a Glenn Beck chalkboard to keep track of all this stuff.

[DarkTZeratul]

PR had it chance to become a state and they wanted to stay independent and voted for it multiple times over the last 100 years...

This literally never happened.

[Moshots]

What year(s) was this, again?

Your the one who linked the article.... They voted in the 50's and multiple times before that when they formed their government was after a vote whether to seek statehood or go independent or stay in their current state. and then again in 1998 they voted 50-45% to not seek statehood and then the first time they to actually try for statehood was 2012 (15 years after clinton cut them off and they ran up 60 billion in debt in those years following the full subsidies ending 2005)

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This literally never happened.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indepe...itical_support

Acknowledging the importance of the question of Puerto Rican status, Truman supported a plebiscite in Puerto Rico in 1952 on the new constitution, to determine the status of the island's relationship to the U.S.[45] The people voted by nearly 82% in favor of the new constitution and Free Associated State, or Commonwealth.

So while Hawai and Alasksa were begging to get in 82% of PR's voted for a self ran government with US control.

then 1998

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puerto...ferendum,_1998

still 50% to stay the same....


Then 2012 a decade or so after clinton cut the tax breaks for companies that put their homes in PR causing mass exodus of companies from PR.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puerto...ferendum,_2012 Is the first time they voted for statehood.... As their country was already amassing massive debt and hadn't broken even one year since Clinton's subsidies cut.


They had decades to request statehood but waited until after their country was failing... I'm not sure why the US would consider taking on a sinking ship as a state.... And don't get me wrong i'm fine with sending help and helping the people but at the same time there is no reason the US should go above and beyond into area's where the PR government should be doing their jobs.

[Hammerfest]

I can see how you would think that if context is an alien concept to you and you wake up every day mystified about how everything on the planet works.

On the contrary, context supports my assertions here.

[Dead Moose Fandango]

On the contrary, context supports my assertions here.

I'm sorry to inform you, but the only thing that supports you in any real context might be your legs. And even those seem pretty damn weak most of the time.

[Zython]

I would think the statement that FEMA can't stay in Puerto Rico forever would be self-evident and not controversial... but then, Trump's public critics are anything but sane.

I don't see why they can't. The U.S. military has been in Afghanistan for 16 years. FEMA hasn't even been in PR for a month.

[Mormolyce]

That wasn't his message. Use your brain.

Maybe ask Trump to do that.

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On the contrary, context supports my assertions here.

I can see how you'd think that if you had a schizophrenic break with reality.