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Esta página no está disponible en español. Room For One More?…If It's So Great To Live Elsewhere …
Room For One More? By Neil Cavuto February 21, 2005 I was in Puerto Rico at a business conference this past weekend and off-hand, one of the attendees mentioned how Puerto Rico is at a crossroads. It's got to decide: Either become a state of this country, or a self-sustaining republic. Nothing in-between, which is kind of what this commonwealth enjoys now – all the benefits of statehood, without the taxes. But I started thinking that might be a lot easier said than done. For one thing, there's the issue of the star. Let's say Puerto Rico becomes our 51st state. Where do we put that 51st star on our flag? Go ahead, figure that out. Then there's the other issue of representation in Washington. With four million-plus residents, by my math, Puerto Rico would not only have the two obligatory senators – there goes you're nice, round 100 – but at least eight representatives in Congress. It would leapfrog right past states like Delaware, Rhode Island, North Dakota, South Dakota, and several others. I imagine they might not be too pleased. And could you imagine how residents of the District of Columbia would feel? They're already out in our national body, save a non-voting member. How would they feel about this island nation just coming into the Capitol, wham-bam-thank-you-ma’m? If It's So Great To Live Elsewhere … LETTERS April 17, 2005 Re "For bliss, Puerto Rico tops list": Whoopee. Now we know the top two places to live to be happy and content. No. 1: Puerto Rico, wherein any vote on whether to become a state has failed to even reach 50 percent. This status of "commonwealth" suits them fine. No income taxes and the other 50 states send them a subsidy of over $10 billion a year. They love it so much that they swarm to live in the 50 states -- mostly in New York and Florida. Forget the murder rate and relative poverty. We received the "responsibility" of Puerto Rico and the Philippines after the Spanish-American War over a century ago, but we were smart and gave the Philippines independence in 1947. We should have done the same unilaterally to Puerto Rico at the same time. T.D. Field
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