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Will Puerto Rico say 'Yes' to Statehood?

Will Puerto Rico say 'Yes' to Statehood?

  • Yes, they will vote for statehood.

    Votes: 4 14.3%

  • No, they will vote for independence.

    Votes: 1 3.6%

  • No, they will maintain free association.

    Votes: 16 57.1%

  • I don't know/Other.

    Votes: 7 25.0%
  • Total voters
    28
  • Poll closed .
I think it will be much better for the Puerto Ricans to become a state. So do I understand form one of these posts here that they voted for statehood this time? I hope Congress would accept this, but I'm pretty sure a fair nuber of Congresspeople will reasons ismilarly to so me here, that they got enough poor people to care for.
 
megaprogman said:
51 star flag is awesome

us-51sta.gif
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I like that map.
 
They have nothing in common with us. They're a Latin American country. They don't even speak English. They are poor and we would have to pour resources in there just to get them up to speed.

Hell no.

Can you tell me one good reason why they should be granted statehood?

zstep18 said:
Why not?

10 char
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Peter Grimm said:
They have nothing in common with us. They're a Latin American country.
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Uhh they've been part of the United States for 95 years now.

They don't even speak English.
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True, but I'm not seeing the big problem here. It's an island...they could still run their state government in Spanish without it affecting anyone. And it's not like this would be the first time we've had a significant portion of a state that speaks another language. New Mexico has a substantial population that speaks Spanish. I'm not seeing the big problem.

They are poor and we would have to pour resources in there just to get them up to speed.
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They are Americans. I see no reason we shouldn't do just that...just as we do for the Deep South.

Hell no.

Can you tell me one good reason why they should be granted statehood?
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Because these American citizens desire statehood.
 
Whatever. It's not going to happen. You liberals are in to empire building. That mindset is disgusting to me.

Kandahar said:
Uhh they've been part of the United States for 95 years now.



True, but I'm not seeing the big problem here. It's an island...they could still run their state government in Spanish without it affecting anyone. And it's not like this would be the first time we've had a significant portion of a state that speaks another language. New Mexico has a substantial population that speaks Spanish. I'm not seeing the big problem.



They are Americans. I see no reason we shouldn't do just that...just as we do for the Deep South.



Because these American citizens desire statehood.
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Peter Grimm said:
Whatever. It's not going to happen. You liberals are in to empire building. That mindset is disgusting to me.
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How is it an empire? Puerto Ricans WANT to be part of the United States. A majority of them just voted for statehood...and only 5.5% of them voted for independence from the US.
 
Peter Grimm said:
Whatever. It's not going to happen. You liberals are in to empire building. That mindset is disgusting to me.
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Empire building? Puerto Rico has been part of the United States for awhile now. It's not as if we invaded Puerto Rico yesterday and demanded they become part of us.

They voted for statehood.

And both parties have expressed support for admitting Puerto Rico as the 51st state.
 
It's not going to happen. And yes, it is empire building. You think everybody needs to be like you. The same reason you fought the south when it tried to secede, the same reason you took california from the mexicans, the same reason you guys want to annex puerto rico.

Greed and empire building.

zstep18 said:
Empire building? Puerto Rico has been part of the United States for awhile now. It's not as if we invaded Puerto Rico yesterday and demanded they become part of us.

They voted for statehood.

And both parties have expressed support for admitting Puerto Rico as the 51st state.
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Peter Grimm said:
It's not going to happen. And yes, it is empire building. You think everybody needs to be like you. The same reason you fought the south when it tried to secede, the same reason you took california from the mexicans, the same reason you guys want to annex puerto rico.

Greed and empire building.
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Except we're not going to war with Puerto Rico to bring them into the Union.

And why are you saying "you" when you refer to taking the South and California. Are you not a citizen of the United States? Shouldn't you be saying "we"?
 
Meh. I don't feel very patriotic today. I'm a Texan at heart.

zstep18 said:
Except we're not going to war with Puerto Rico to bring them into the Union.

And why are you saying "you" when you refer to taking the South and California. Are you not a citizen of the United States? Shouldn't you be saying "we"?
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Peter Grimm said:
It's not going to happen.
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In order to become a state, a territory needs three things: 1) A referendum supporting statehood, 2) A republican constitution, 3) Approval from Congress and the president.

Puerto Rico is now 2/3 of the way there. It now goes to the Congress, where there is at least some bipartisan support for Puerto Rican statehood. It remains to be seen how widespread that support is on the Republican side of the aisle...but now that Puerto Rico has accomplished steps #1 and #2, statehood is "on the table" whenever Congress decides to tackle it. So even if there aren't enough votes to get it done now, it seems very likely to happen the next time there is a Democratic majority in both houses of Congress (if not sooner).

And yes, it is empire building. You think everybody needs to be like you.
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I don't think any such thing. *Puerto Ricans* voted for statehood, not me. If they had voted to stick with their status quo, I would not be advocating statehood for them today.

The same reason you fought the south when it tried to secede,
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"The south" never seceded...an illegitimate oligarchy of white males tried to secede so that they could enslave 40% of the population.

the same reason you took california from the mexicans,
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:lol:

the same reason you guys want to annex puerto rico.
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I want to annex Puerto Rico because Puerto Ricans want to be annexed, as last night's referendum shows.
 
Kandahar said:
My understanding is that it *is* a referendum. Now that it seems to have passed, it goes to Congress for ratification. If Congress approves and the president signs off on it, we could have our 51st state as early as next year.
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No.......it was not. It was a choice to HAVE a referendum. I am in PR right now.........they will now have an up or down for statehood.
 
Peter Grimm said:
Whatever. It's not going to happen. You liberals are in to empire building. That mindset is disgusting to me.
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Yeah bro, us left libs who are 'too much of wussies to own guns' are going to build an empire.


Right.
 
liblady said:
No.......it was not. It was a choice to HAVE a referendum. I am in PR right now.........they will now have an up or down for statehood.
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No they indeed just had a referendum. They had the two questions on the ballot of whether or not to keep the status quo and a second question of statehood, free association or independence if the status quo was not kept. So yes, they already decided in favour of statehood.
 
Juiposa said:
No they indeed just had a referendum. They had the two questions on the ballot of whether or not to keep the status quo and a second question of statehood, free association or independence if the status quo was not kept. So yes, they already decided in favour of statehood.
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So sorry, you are correct. They actually had 3 choices, but this was a non binding referendum.
 
Puerto Ricans want statehood. They just can't afford to have their taxes doubled. Who can? Under the current territorial relationship all federal income taxes raised in PR stay in Puerto Rico and acts similar to a state tax eliminating the need to raise additional funding to pay for the things the states have to fund. I also THINK the territorial government in PR pays for everything stateside municipal governments fund covering things like public schools, police, fire rescue, roads, garbage collection, libraries, etc. acting more like a big city government than a state. In any event, figuring out their tax situation would be only one of two hurddles IMHO. The other being getting the GOP controlled US House of Representatives to agree to add what will likely be 2 more Democrat US Senators, about 10 more democrats in the House, 12 democrat Electoral College votes and significantly decreasing the likelihood of GOP Presidential candidates getting elected.

As I understand it the first phase has already been done. Tuesday night the people of Puerto Rico voted for a move toward statehood. What I think happens next is the Puerto Rico territorial legislature will pass an official request to become the 51st state to Congress based upon the will of the people expressed on Tuesday. Then both houses of Congress will have to say yes. The Senate being Democrat will probably say yes. The House might say no although no time in US history has any other territory requesting statehood since the original 13 have ever been rejected so who knows. Then the President will sign it into law and its done. Obama has already said he will.

Some people might think having two official languages could pose a problem but IMHO hypocritically so. The state of New Mexico has had the same two official languages for a century and written into its state's constitution. If people take issue with PR having both Spanish and English as official state languages, they better be ready to come out against New Mexico's 100 year old state constitution too.

Again, the biggest issue is going to be losing their territorial revenue/state revenue since the current money would have to start going to Washington instead of San Juan barring what I think offers the best solution, setting up a special 100% rebate to the new state government to be incrementally decreased each year over a 50 or 100 year term provision.
 
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