Puerto Rico faces humanitarian crisis without federal action: Treasury

[uawchild]

Source: Reuters

U.S. Treasury Secretary counselor Antonio Weiss warned that Puerto Rico faced a humanitarian crisis without federal action, as he appealed to Congress to help the debt-ridden U.S. territory, according to testimony released ahead of a Senate committee hearing on Thursday.

Weiss said that without action by Congress, Puerto Rico's crisis would escalate and reiterated that the Obama administration's policies were "not a bailout" for the island.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/10/22/us-usa-puertorico-treasury-idUSKCN0SG1TB20151022

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This gets so little media attention here at home. Why?

[philosslayer]

1. Puerto Rico needs help

If the bankers can get a federal bailout, why not Puerto Rico?

[AngryAmish]

2. All she really need is independence

Any problems would then go away.

[LanternWaste]

3. It certainly worked for the middle east nations after the French and British left

It certainly worked for the middle east nations after the French and British left; and for the sub-Saharan regions too when Belgium and France decided to "go away."

Or maybe (just maybe...), it's not quite as simplistic as we like to pretend-- especially when considering that the vast majority of the territory does not wish for independence and consider themselves Americans, aptly indicated by four plebiscites illustrating that merely 3.5% of the population desires full independence, the other 96.5% wishing to either maintain current status or enter into full statehood.

[uawchild]

5. GADZOOKS! Shades of "The White Man's Burden" /sarcasm

"It [i.e. independence - uawchild] certainly worked for the middle east nations after the French and British left; and for the sub-Saharan regions too when Belgium and France decided to "go away." "

Yeah, cause colonialism and economic exploitation of those colonies was better. Please. When you threw in BELGUIM as some sort of model for colonial government, I wondered if you are actually trolling us here for some reason.

"History of the Belgian Congo: Imperialism, Genocide & Atrocities: The Belgian Congo is often cited as one of the most brutal and exploitative colonial regimes in modern history. It stands as an extreme example of the cruelty of European rule in Africa for the sake of economic gain."
http://study.com/academy/lesson/history-of-the-belgian-congo-imperialism-genocide-atrocities.html

That's what, middle school level history, for god's sake.

As for the white man's burden in general:

"The White Man's Burden" is a poem by the English poet Rudyard Kipling.

It was originally published in the popular magazine McClure's in 1899, with the subtitle The United States and the Philippine Islands.[1] The poem was originally written for Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee, but exchanged for "Recessional"; Kipling changed the text of "Burden" to reflect the subject of American colonization of the Philippines, recently won from Spain in the Spanish–American War.[2] The poem consists of seven stanzas, following a regular rhyme scheme. At face value it appears to be a rhetorical command to white men to colonize and rule other nations for the benefit of those people (both the people and the duty may be seen as representing the "burden" of the title).

Although Kipling's poem mixed exhortation of empire with somber warnings of the costs involved, imperialists within the United States of America understood the phrase "white man's burden" as justifying imperialism as a noble enterprise.[3][4][5][6][7] Because of its theme and title, it has become emblematic both of Eurocentric racism and of Western aspirations to improve and industrialise the developing world"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_White_Man%27s_Burden

[Igel]

4. Would lending PR that money

at interest really help?

That was the federal bailout. The feds made a profit on the bailout.

[fasttense]

6. No, not in reality

The Fed did NOT make money on the bailouts though all the banksters would like you to think that. Not if you consider ALL the help they got like guarantees for future bailouts and borrowing at zero interest while being able to loan out at well over 3%. Then there was all the law breaking such as fraud and money laundering they only had to pay small fines for.

But of course we couldn't help Detroit and Obama is never going to help any city or country because he's all about "free" trade. He'll help a corporation but he will never help real people that's anti-free trade.

[Sunlei]

7. Congress could require that everyone under USA corp control are paid the Federal

minimum wage. Prisoners and Islands under American control don't have this basic worker pay protection and so workers are paid almost nothing (20 cents an hour for some prisoners)