Ryan: Don't call Puerto Rico bill a 'bailout'

[roo_ster]

Ryan: Don't call Puerto Rico bill a 'bailout'
http://thehill.com/policy/finance/276180-ryan-dont-call-puerto-rico-bill-a-bailout

Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) blasted Wall Street investors on Wednesday as he tried to tamp down conservative discontent with a bill to assist Puerto Rico.

The GOP leader charged that “special money interest groups on Wall Street” are trying to sabotage the legislation by billing it as a “bailout.”..

Ryan’s push comes as GOP leaders are trying to pull in enough support from both parties to clear legislation that would impose a fiscal oversight board on Puerto Rico and allow it to restructure some of its debts...

But at a hearing Wednesday on the bill, several conservative lawmakers argued the GOP-crafted legislation is effectively a bailout for an island struggling with an ailing economy that is billions of dollars in debt.

Several Republicans expressed concern with allowing the island to renegotiate its debts, and insisted taxpayers would eventually have to foot the bill for Puerto Rican relief.

Meanwhile, Democrats have expressed openness to the bill, but have said they cannot back it without some changes, most notably to the powers of an outside fiscal control board.

This would be a wonderful time to make PR an independent country. 

I am not on-board with bailing out socially and economically retarded polities with money from responsible taxpayers.  If they can;t settle their debts, maybe they can sell the whole damned island to teh US Navy and Air Force to use as a bombing range. 

[brimic]

I'd actually be surprised if Ryan weren't out of a job a year from now. His name is a dirty word in WI, just like everywhere else, and his district isn't all that conservative. Having him ousted and replaced with a democrat back- bencher would not be a bad thing.

[RoadKingLarry]

Ryan doesn't like the term "bail out" I guess it's time to consult the worlds smartest dinosaur.

http://www.thesaurus.com/browse/bail%20out?s=ts

[grampster]

Another example proving if we had about 1/3 the government, we'd probably do away with about 2/3 of the fiscal irresponsibility.

[RevDisk]

Lemme guess, it's not a bailout, we're just assuming their debt.

Have we ever done that for a state or territory in recent history?

[Ben]

I have a friend, who while taking a year off from being a scientist last year, was working as a dive guide in PR. I was in the old stomping grounds earlier this week and caught up with her. She's pretty far left, and she really went off over this bailout. Apparently your average PR resident makes the average Obama phone, EBT card carrier look like an upstanding citizen. She said she wouldn't have been against a bailout if she hadn't experienced the place.

There's also apparently a pretty strong prejudice against white people (that aren't tourists) that live and work there. She had a lot of examples about "two different lines" kinda stuff at government services, utility, and other offices. When she recently called them regarding a problem with her PR taxes, when she "pressed 1 for English", she sat on hold for 30 minutes, then got disconnected in the middle of the call. If she went straight through to Spanish, the call got answered right away, and when they heard she was a US citizen, they put her on hold and then never got back to her. Comcast has nothing on them. :)

[Fly320s]

I've spent enou time in PR to know that we should cut them loose.  Make them become their own country and fend for themselves.

[230RN]

You can pull some interesting quotes out of these two articles and "parallel" some of PR's financial games with the mainland government's long-term activities.

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/06/puerto-rico-debt-crisis/397241/

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/06/29/puerto-rico-financial-crisis_n_7689994.html

You can't get free from debt by borrowing.

[roo_ster]

Down with imperialism!  Up with Puerto Rico independence!