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President Barack Obama’s proposed $3.77 trillion budget proposal for 2014 includes $2.5 million for voter education and the first federally sanctioned plebiscite in Puerto Rico on options that would resolve the fundamental question of the island’s future political status.
The funds would be appropriated to the Department of Justice to be granted to the Puerto Rico State Elections Commission. The monies could be used after the attorney general has found a commission plan that includes education materials and ballot options to be consistent with the Constitution and basic laws and policies of the United States.
It looks like this is the final showdown. The US Congress and the US Attorney General will write the status definitions so there will be no fantasy land definitions of "commonwealth" from the Popular Democratic Party. Only valid non-colonial options will be included (ie: statehood and independence with or without a Compact of Free Association). If the "commonwealth" option is included it will be 'as is' (ie: a colony subject to the Territorial Clause of the US Constitution and the Plenary Powers of the US Congress). Undoubtedly the PDP will cry foul and do their usual ramblings about "bilateral pacts", "Puerto Rico stopped being a colony in 1952", "Commonwealth means permanent union with the United States", Luis Munoz Marin, and the tooth fairy.
The results will be binding so Congress would be required to begin the process to admit Puerto Rico as a state should statehood win.
With Democrats in control of the Senate, they will do anything to help the PDP get their way. Yet Democrats unfortunately come up with the lie that Republicans will try to block statehood when their political platform explicitly mentions support for it, which the Democratic platform does not. Almost all Republican presidents in the past 40 years have explicitly supported statehood for Puerto Rico, while not a single Democratic president in the past 40 years has explicitly supported it; throughout history only one Democratic president (Franklin D. Roosevelt) has supported statehood for Puerto Rico, while some (such as John F. Kennedy) have explicitly supported the status quo.
If Obama really supported statehood he would just honor the November referendum instead of having a re-vote in a federally sanctioned referendum. Had Romney won the election last year, he would have honored the referendum without any issue.
A Status plebicite? I Just hope that this is not another wild goose chase. There are already senators asking questions.
Senator Ron Wyden, (D. Oregon) and Doc Hastings ( R Washington) are saying , NOT SO FAST. Both are questioning what will Puerto Rico cost the American Tax Payer in a deficit prone America. This is just the beginning.
1-This plebicite can't be designed by Puerto Ricans, like most plebicites have been. Congress has to tell Puerto Ricans what its willing to accept. An all spanish speaking state? A state poorer than Mississippi? A state with enough electoral votes to decide a close presidential election? As of now, nobody knows.
2-Is Congress ready for a mega political state with 7 representatives and 2 hispanic Senators?
This is more state representation that 27 states!
3-Is congress ready to accept a state in which 60% live off welfare, has the highest crime rate in the nation and one of the lowest rates of people wanting to work in the world?
4-Is Congress ready for an all Spansh Speaking state which refuses to change language?
5-Are Repubicans ready for a state which may be 75% Democratic, crashing their aspirations to ever regain the White House?
6-Wll the white Republican base accept a "brown state" simply because Hispanics are on the rise and bragging about making them a minority in ten years?
Talk is cheap, when reality sets in that is when we'll see the fire works.
2-Is Congress ready for a mega political state with 7 representatives and 2 hispanic Senators?
This is more state representation that 27 states!
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Note that the House is legally capped at 435 representatives, and should Puerto Rico be admitted, most likely the states that would lose representatives would be the major blue states (such as California or New York), and thus would only be a net gain of 2 electoral votes should Puerto Rico be a solid blue state.
1) That is the entire point of this referendum. A free, and fair process without fantasy land status options from the Munoz Marin worshipers.
2) We already have several majority minority states: Hawaii has always been majority minority, New Mexico, California, and Texas. California and New Mexico were both majority minority at the time of statehood.
3) Your description is offensive. I know many hard working Puerto Ricans.
4) We don't have a national language. We are a nation of many different languages and cultures - many of which predate British settlement and the later Manifest Destiny.
5) One, first and foremost, most Puerto Rican Democrats are moderates or socially conservative/fiscally liberal. They are not Nancy Pelosi moonbats. Secondly, the majority of the pro-statehood PNP members are national Republicans ... even Pierluisi, a very active Democrat, said that the common belief that Puerto Rico would be solidly Democrat is largely a myth. Some of the most powerful and well known figures within the statehood movement are national Republicans: Luis Fortuno, Hector O'Neill, Carlos Mendez, Thomas Rivera Schatz, Jeniffer Gonzalez, Jose Aponte Hernandez, ... and need I mention Luis Ferre, Rafael Nadal Martinez, and Miguel Garcia Mendez?
6) See #2 and #4
All American citizens should be equal regardless of where they happen to live. An American citizen should have the same rights, access to the same benefits, receive the same level of representation, and hold the same responsibilities and obligations as any other American citizen.
As of August 2012 the Popular Democratic Party had 910,000 registered voters and the New Progressive Party had 1,200,000 registered voters.
All members of the PDP are national Democrats so right there they have 910,000 Democrats but as I said above many of them are basically DINOs that are Democrats solely due to the Republican Party's historical support for statehood. My sources within the New Progressive Party tell me that a good 2/3 - 3/4 of the party would fall into the realm of the national Republican Party which equals 780,000 - that's quite a few Republicans for a Hispanic majority state with only 2 million registered voters!
If PR becomes a state, it will be blue. No doubt about it.
Most Puerto Rican voters don't participate in the primaries and have a "why bother?" approach since they cannot vote in the actual presidential election. Also primaries tend to have notoriously low turnouts nationwide, in the New York Republican presidential primary in 2012 less than a quarter of registered Republicans voted.
Like always this will be a plebicite designed by Puerto Ricans, with all the goodies sold to the poor as more "beneficios". Is it any wonder that stehood wins. Who wants to kill the goose that lays the golden eggs? On top of that Statehooders are on the books saying that Sapinsh is not negociable, however this is only for the island population and not for Congress. Despite many here saying that language isn't a problem because many languages like Hawaiian, Cajun and Spanish are spoken in the US, however when was the last time any bill was discussed in any of these languages in the state houses or in Congress? " El papel aguanta todo lo que le pongan".
English is the defacto language of the US, although not dejure, everybody knows that! All that folkloric stuff about language tolerance is nothing but BS, only until the new immigrant groups assimilate. When push comes to shove and langauge comes up in negociations trouble is ahead.
Of course any language can be spoken at home but in the public sphere it must be English!
About politial power, nobody wants to loose what they have in order to accomodate a state that for all purposes functions more like an independent nation like Costa Rica and not like Idaho.
Yes , Puerto ricnas are American citizens, although statutory, and should aspire to Rights within the nation of their citizenship, but when REAL POLITIKS is added to the mix that is when fireworks will start.
Question?
How is a Puerto Rican state within the best national interests of the US when we are no longer needed for national defense? Nobody knows, and given the cultural wars that the nation is experiencing, good luck with a bilingual state more in tune with Quebec than Hawaii.
In truth, I am actually betting that Obama wants to hold a re-vote to ensure statehood doesn't win. Yet the Democrats will continue falsely accusing Republicans for being against statehood when their platform states otherwise. These platforms aren't written by one person, they are voted on in the party conventions. If the Republican Party really were against statehood for Puerto Rico, they would have voted against it in the RNC. Romney is a major supporter of statehood for Puerto Rico, and he would have honored the November referendum with ease had he won the Presidential election. No Democratic president (other than Franklin D. Roosevelt) has ever supported statehood for Puerto Rico, while almost all Republican presidents have supported it.
At the same time, the GOP is against statehood for Washington DC.
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