Until Puerto Rico is a state, I believe they shouldn’t have to pay taxes. No taxation without representation.
They are exempt from federal income tax.
While a good start, they do still pay other kinds of federal taxes (without representation), such as payroll taxes
And paid $4 billion in federal taxes in 2021 https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/puerto-rico-us-territory-crisis#chapter-title-0-4
God you can’t even have colonies anymore, another victim of wokeness
No, this is what we do. 51=17x3. 52=26x2. 53, however is a prime number so it can’t be divided.
We make PR a state, Guam, and DC.
AND WE BECOME… One nation, indivisible.
This needs to be a meme.
Squish the Dakotas together and make PR a state, we wouldn’t even need a new flag.
Wymonkota, anyone?
Yes!
You have . . . a point.
No silly, we COMBINE some of the 18 low-population states so we can go back to 48! One nation 6x8, with a better balance in representation! Or 45 could be nice as well.
overly positive elementary school teacher voice* “okay low pop states find your buddy.” “to make it easier for some of you if your state starts with a cardinal direction congrats you’ve already got a preassigned merge buddy and new name!”… “ah no Kansas, ‘Ar’ is not a direction, you and Arkansas wont work you don’t even share a border hun” “…unless” Kansouri-Oklasas
Why combine extant states? Just pull a colonial Europe and draw a whole new map over it! Nuts to “natural boundaries” or “cultural similarities”, everyone on the east coast from DC to King’s Bay is now part of the State of Midlantic.
Gerrymander the state borders!
Just break a pool cue and force them to fight tbh
No factors, still divisible.
Guam + Marianas would make more sense, very low populations out ðere
Didn’t they recently vote to not become a state?
I’m not sure that more than 50% of Puerto Rico wants to be a state.
They vote on it rather frequently. They do at the moment but it does waffle a bit.
The last vote had a very huge abstention ‘vote’, which was the only reason the ‘for’ vote out performed the ‘against’.
What are the downsides to becoming a state?
Puerto Rico doesn’t pay federal taxes
PR is so poor that very few there would pay income tax. The majority of people would actually receive money due to the EITC.
Poor people voting against their own interests because a rich asshole told them to is an American tradition, I guess they’re definitely ready!
If we really cared about PR we would have pushed for this a long time ago. This is news because of a joke but we live in the united states of amnesia, by next monday this will all be forgotten.
They can become a state if they want to. They have voted against it in the past.
Their most recent vote in 2020 results in favor of statehood (not by much). However, Congress has to make it happen, not Puerto Rico.
The last vote had a very huge abstention ‘vote’, which was the only reason the ‘for’ vote out performed the ‘against’.
What was the message behind abstaining?
This is an oversimplification from someone who has only heard it from his Puerto Rican wife.
She said that there’s a large population of Puerto Ricans that distrust both the US government itself and PR’s. Some of that stems from deep seated anger and pain from the tourism industry, foreign investors buying properties, and a lack of support and representation from the US itself. The corruption within PR’s own government and how they’ll do anything they can for ‘support’ from the US, at the expense of their own identity and culture, while further burying themselves in debt to the US, led to the protest abstain vote movement among a significant portion of what would have been ‘no’ voters.
There’s probably someone out there who’s written a research paper/news article or two about it, but the biggest take away is that the majority of Puerto Ricans are not in support of Statehood. There’re large populations seeking independence, the status quo staying the same, and Statehood, all separately without a clear majority in any direction.
Independence wasnt on the menu
came to say this. Its kinda their own fault. Which more than anything indicates how american they are.
My understanding is that many Puerto Ricans don’t even want statehood.
About 50-60% want statehood, it’s the majority opinion, but a lot of people like not having income taxes
The last vote had a very huge abstention ‘vote’, which was the only reason the ‘for’ vote out performed the ‘against’.
They just want independence iirc
That’s actually a pretty fringe belief on Puerto Rico
I am surprised conservatives don’t want to add PR as a state, Republicans would definitely get more reps voting along religious lines in congress
It’s because racism
why not oppose US colonialism and support Puerto Rican independence instead of statehood?
What do the Puerto Ricans want?
Awesome point. Give them a real choice.
I honestly don’t think this would ever get support. Puerto Rico is very republican last I checked so dems aren’t exactly incentivized to vote it in. And republicans don’t want it because that would be fair treatment to a minority so
I’m more interested in PR having representation then how it affects my own opinions.
Yeah I agree, I meant more the actual lawmakers aren’t terribly incentivized
If they have enough people for four representatives, then if they stay a territory they ought to get more than the single delegate they have in the House. I don’t even care if that would add more siding with Republicans, they deserve more than they have.
Irony of the situation that the same Republican Party hates Puerto Ricans so much. I hope PR folks understand that when repubes say migrants are rapists, druggists, and murderers they also mean you - even though you’re not migrants - MAGA doesn’t give a fuck to the fact that you’re citizens.
"No no no…he’s talking about Haitians, those savages.
We Puerto Ricans are the exemption. We’re special."
first they came for the LGBTQ and we said nothing for we were not them, then they came for the couch cushions and we laughed… wait.
We’re the good ones
Cubans who came here legally are the exception.
Which is why, like in all past state additions, you do it in a way that is balanced based on contemporary divides, like slave vs free states. Puerto Rico and DC at the same time.
I don’t think “very republican” is accurate but definitely not as left leaning as Dems like to believe. There is a deep seeded mistrust of government while at the same time high expectations of benefits from the government. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ So the bottom line is that you just can’t tell which way they would go and that’s not a gamble either party wants to take.
Surprised at 18, but guess it’s not that surprising.
It’s not hard to beat Wyoming in population especially.
