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In April 2009 Obama lifted the ban, allowing Cuban Americans to visit Cuba. A new poll of Cuban Americans shows a strong majority favor allowing all Americans to travel to the island. Cuban Americans going to Cuba is to be around 200,000 visitors by year's end.
I think if Cuban Americans are allowed to visit Cuba, why not the rest of us. The US is the only country in the world that does not allow its citizens to travel to Cuba.
Why should the rest of us be denied to opportunity to see a lot of classic cars - 1950's and older (approx. 60,000 on the streets of Cuba) drink fantastic rum, and smoke the best cigars in the world right in Cuba. I think we should lift the embargo as well. I'd like to bring Cuban Rum and Cigars back to US legally.
In April 2009 Obama lifted the ban, allowing Cuban Americans to visit Cuba. A new poll of Cuban Americans shows a strong majority favor allowing all Americans to travel to the island. Cuban Americans going to Cuba is to be around 200,000 visitors by year's end.
I think if Cuban Americans are allowed to visit Cuba, why not the rest of us. The US is the only country in the world that does not allow its citizens to travel to Cuba.
Why should the rest of us be denied to opportunity to see a lot of classic cars - 1950's and older (approx. 60,000 on the streets of Cuba) drink fantastic rum, and smoke the best cigars in the world right in Cuba. I think we should lift the embargo as well. I'd like to bring Cuban Rum and Cigars back to US legally.
I agree that we should lift the embargo and travel restrictions. I've heard that the island is very beautiful.
I hate to tell you Americans have been visiting cuba the entire time.
Yes lets give Fidel some more cash while the citizens keep living with very little
this is the reason i say no. if tourist money actually stimulated the economy for the people SURE no problem but the castros have such a tight grip that the people live in poverty over it.
my inlaws go there once a year (they are not us citizens) and have been bragging about its culture and beauty but bring tales of extreame hardship and poverty for generally no reason.
(lmao "bring tales" holy Toledo where did i get that one?)
I hate to tell you Americans have been visiting cuba the entire time.
Yes lets give Fidel some more cash while the citizens keep living with very little
And you know as well as I do that those Americans have been breaking the law if they did not get a license to go to Cuba from the Treasury Dept.
You and I also both know that two low-level state employees of the State of Florida went to Cuba illegally, via Cancun, Mexico, and the trip was authorized by a Jeb Bush political appointee, and that the trip was PAID FOR WITH FLORIDA TAXPAYER MONEY.
However, it was amazing to many that NO ONE cared that basically under Jeb Bush's watch, his employees broke federal law by traveling to Cuba illegally and that the trip was paid for entirely by Florida taxpayer money! Now that's a very good "administrator" for you....Jeb Bush, the Cuban American exiles' advocate basically, didn't even know that a political appointee he made had authorized travel to Cuba by two of his employees, and THEN when Jeb was informed about the trip, the "whole thing" got shoved under the rug. TODAY that political appointee is still employed by the State of Florida in the same position, earning a good salary and racking up those retirement/pension benefits.
So WHY shouldn't the rest of us get to travel to Cuba legally rather than taking the risk of breaking the law and getting a $50,000 fine? If Jeb Bush is okay with giving YOUR tax money to Fidel Castro via state employees traveling to Cuba illegally, spending a week there "on business," why should YOU care?
Oh, yes. And btw, it is against the law in the state of Florida for any agency to send anyone to Cuba illegally, and the state provides that any agency which breaks the law in that manner will lose its FUNDING. But, Nope, the agency which sent two of it's low-level employees to Cuba for a week still has its funding and is still going strong.
this is the reason i say no. if tourist money actually stimulated the economy for the people SURE no problem but the castros have such a tight grip that the people live in poverty over it.
my inlaws go there once a year (they are not us citizens) and have been bragging about its culture and beauty but bring tales of extreame hardship and poverty for generally no reason.
(lmao "bring tales" holy Toledo where did i get that one?)
See my post #5.
Apparently Jeb Bush, the former governor of Florida, did not see fit to take any action against one of his political appointees (Neil Dupree) for authorizing travel for two of his low-level state employees to travel to Cuba illegally (broke federal law) (via Cancun, Mexico) for "business" as well as allowing Florida taxpayer money to pay for the trip.
Can we say "hypocrisy"?
Jeb Bush and his former Chief Counsel (a Cuban American) did absolutely NOTHING after they were informed of the illegal trip to Cuba by state employees, nothing other than "appear" to shove this little embarrassment under the rug as quickly as possible.
However, a few newspapers in the state did pick up on the story after the Florida Department of Financial Services did an investigation of the incident as well as other "corruption" by the Jeb Bush political appointee. The FDFS found probable cause for five the the allegations. STILL, Jeb Bush did not even repirmand the political appointee. It's really great when the governor of a state turns his head the other way while state employees break federal law....
YEAH, let's open up Cuba. How do you know that opening up trade and travel with Cuba will not in any way benefit "the people" there?
The embargo is just an excuse for Fidel to blame the woes in his country (utopia) on the US. It's not accomplishing anything than propping up the old dinosaur at this point.
I see no reason why we should still have an embargo to Cuba, or travel restrictions from going there.
I'm hoping things open up there, I'd love to get a job working for a cellular company there.
Maybe you should try to get a job in the state agency where Neil Dupree is the director. Then you may just get to travel to Cuba and have the state pay for your trip......and even though it's illegal, the last employees of Neil Dupree who traveled to Cuba for that state agency were never even reprimanded and neither was Dupree.......so it seems there may not be any negative consequences of illegal travel to Cuba if you do it while employed by the state agency, CCRC, located in Ft. Lauderdale.
Actually, Charlie Crist has not officially re-appointed Neil Dupree to his current position, and his position is one which requires state senate confirmation, Dupree still has his job, still receives a good salary, and still is racking up that retirement/pension benefit........all taking place for several years AFTER HIS APPOINTMENT EXPIRED!
If the goal of U.S. policy toward Cuba is to help its people achieve freedom and a better life, the economic embargo has failed completely. Its economic effect is to make the people of Cuba worse-off by depriving them of lower-cost food and other goods that could be bought from the United States. It means less independence for Cuban workers and entrepreneurs, who could be earning dollars from American tourists and fueling private-sector growth. Meanwhile, Castro and his ruling elite enjoy a comfortable, insulated lifestyle by extracting any meager surplus produced by their captive subjects.
Cuban families are not the only victims of the embargo. Many of the dollars Cubans could earn from U.S. tourists would come back to the United States to buy American products, especially farm goods. The American Farm Bureau estimates that Cuba could "eventually become a $1 billion agricultural-export market for products of U.S. farmers and ranchers." The embargo stifles another $250 million in potential annual exports of fertilizer, herbicides, pesticides and tractors. According to a study last year by the U.S. International Trade Commission, the embargo costs American firms between $684 million and $1.2 billion per year - Daniel Griswold 2002
1998 U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency report concluded that, "Cuba does not pose a significant military threat to the U.S. or to other countries in the region.
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