Congresswoman: Puerto Rico
Receiving More Than $1.6 Billion in Direct Federal Aid
Rep. Jenniffer Gonzalez-Colon (Photo courtesy of House website)
(CNSNews.com) - Puerto Rico’s only congresswoman, Rep. Jenniffer Gonzalez-Colon (R-PR) defended President Donald Trump’s comments about the hurricane recovery efforts in Puerto Rico throwing the federal budget “out of whack.”
During his visit Tuesday, Trump said, “Now, I hate to tell you, Puerto Rico, but you’ve thrown our budget a little out of whack, because we’ve spent a lot of money on Puerto Rico - and that’s fine.”
When asked what she thought of the president’s comments during a gaggle on board Air Force One, , Gonzalez-Colon said, “We are receiving more than $1.6 billion in direct help. We're talking about commodities. We're talking about water, diesel tanks, personnel that is in the island, so we know this is a -- we are part of the U.S., so this is the help we need at this time of need.
“So, I mean, he's just saying that -- many people are saying that the U.S. is not doing enough, but in the forefront with $1.6 billion in the island -- he just signed $40 million for the highways repairs last week, and there's more money coming up in the next days. So we're talking about a new relief package for the hurricanes,” she said.
“So this is not stopping there. It's going to continue to have more costs, and of course, more money getting through to the island,” Gonzalez-Colon added.
“What answer did you get to your question about the waiver? When you asked for the waiver for cost sharing for rebuilding, what kind of response did you get?” a reporter asked Gonzalez-Colon.
“They're still working on that issue because there's an issue of liquidity. The government is not going to have liquidity to pay in the next month. So I know there's some issues being discussed, in terms of what programs -- what specific programs -- are going to be waived,” she said.
“Actually, I spoke yesterday with the Deputy Secretary of Transportation, and we were defining what programs. The same thing with Agriculture -- there are so many programs and the White House is saying that there's an executive order from … George Bush, saying that Puerto Rico should be treated as a state in all federal programs, so if that executive order is still in place, we should waive that,” she added.
When asked if she had any assurances on when the supplemental request will come from the White House, or whether she’s received assurances that the island will receive loans from the Treasury Department, the congresswoman said, “On the first one, in the supplemental for relief, I spoke with the speaker of the House, and he's committed to have that during the last week of October, so there's going to be money there. How much? We don't know yet."
Gonzalez-Colon added, “But there's going to be -- not just for Puerto Rico -- it's going to be for all hurricanes. So all states can receive money from FEMA from that fund.”
When asked what more the island needs and whether she conveyed the needs to the president during his visit, Gonzalez-Colon said, “The governor has been asking and requesting a lot of help in different ways, and the president has granted 100 percent of what the governor asks.
“When you're working in a desperate situation like we are -- and we still are in a dire situation -- and you see that the president, his Cabinet members are committed, and everything that has been requested has been granted -- I mean, that shows you commitment,” she said.
“And it's not just words - it's commitment. It's money. It's personnel. It's tanks. It's having a daily meeting with the Cabinet, communicating with the governor in terms of where we are, what we need, how can we improve logistics. The commodities are arriving to the island, but they're not getting to all the people in the island yet I mean, in the southern part of the island,” she added.
President Donald Trump told reporters Tuesday that Puerto Rico needs more help at the local level to help distribute the commodities being provided by the federal government.
Meanwhile, before leaving the region Tuesday, President Donald Trump said on a local level Puerto Rico has to provide more help. When asked to explain those comments, the president said, “On a local level, we need the truck drivers. We need the police. We need more help on a local level, that’s true. We have tremendous amounts of supplies there. We need them distributed locally, and the best one to do that are local people.
“We need local help, and they’re helping,” the president told reporters during a gaggle on board Air Force One. “They’re really gearing up. They’re helping. Don’t forget, a lot of them lost their homes, and when you lose a home, it’s not easy to say, hey, I’m going to go and start delivering water -- or even be a policeman."
During his visit Tuesday, Trump said, “Now, I hate to tell you, Puerto Rico, but you’ve thrown our budget a little out of whack, because we’ve spent a lot of money on Puerto Rico - and that’s fine.”
When asked what she thought of the president’s comments during a gaggle on board Air Force One, , Gonzalez-Colon said, “We are receiving more than $1.6 billion in direct help. We're talking about commodities. We're talking about water, diesel tanks, personnel that is in the island, so we know this is a -- we are part of the U.S., so this is the help we need at this time of need.
“So, I mean, he's just saying that -- many people are saying that the U.S. is not doing enough, but in the forefront with $1.6 billion in the island -- he just signed $40 million for the highways repairs last week, and there's more money coming up in the next days. So we're talking about a new relief package for the hurricanes,” she said.
“So this is not stopping there. It's going to continue to have more costs, and of course, more money getting through to the island,” Gonzalez-Colon added.
“What answer did you get to your question about the waiver? When you asked for the waiver for cost sharing for rebuilding, what kind of response did you get?” a reporter asked Gonzalez-Colon.
“They're still working on that issue because there's an issue of liquidity. The government is not going to have liquidity to pay in the next month. So I know there's some issues being discussed, in terms of what programs -- what specific programs -- are going to be waived,” she said.
“Actually, I spoke yesterday with the Deputy Secretary of Transportation, and we were defining what programs. The same thing with Agriculture -- there are so many programs and the White House is saying that there's an executive order from … George Bush, saying that Puerto Rico should be treated as a state in all federal programs, so if that executive order is still in place, we should waive that,” she added.
When asked if she had any assurances on when the supplemental request will come from the White House, or whether she’s received assurances that the island will receive loans from the Treasury Department, the congresswoman said, “On the first one, in the supplemental for relief, I spoke with the speaker of the House, and he's committed to have that during the last week of October, so there's going to be money there. How much? We don't know yet."
Gonzalez-Colon added, “But there's going to be -- not just for Puerto Rico -- it's going to be for all hurricanes. So all states can receive money from FEMA from that fund.”
When asked what more the island needs and whether she conveyed the needs to the president during his visit, Gonzalez-Colon said, “The governor has been asking and requesting a lot of help in different ways, and the president has granted 100 percent of what the governor asks.
“When you're working in a desperate situation like we are -- and we still are in a dire situation -- and you see that the president, his Cabinet members are committed, and everything that has been requested has been granted -- I mean, that shows you commitment,” she said.
“And it's not just words - it's commitment. It's money. It's personnel. It's tanks. It's having a daily meeting with the Cabinet, communicating with the governor in terms of where we are, what we need, how can we improve logistics. The commodities are arriving to the island, but they're not getting to all the people in the island yet I mean, in the southern part of the island,” she added.
President Donald Trump told reporters Tuesday that Puerto Rico needs more help at the local level to help distribute the commodities being provided by the federal government.
Meanwhile, before leaving the region Tuesday, President Donald Trump said on a local level Puerto Rico has to provide more help. When asked to explain those comments, the president said, “On a local level, we need the truck drivers. We need the police. We need more help on a local level, that’s true. We have tremendous amounts of supplies there. We need them distributed locally, and the best one to do that are local people.
“We need local help, and they’re helping,” the president told reporters during a gaggle on board Air Force One. “They’re really gearing up. They’re helping. Don’t forget, a lot of them lost their homes, and when you lose a home, it’s not easy to say, hey, I’m going to go and start delivering water -- or even be a policeman."
THE ONLY THING SACRED TO THESE FILTHY POLITICIANS IS THAT THEIR CRONY BANKSTERS ARE WELL GROGED NO MATTER WHAT THE COST OF THEIR CRIMES TO THE REST OF US ARE!
THERE IS NO COMPANY ON WALL STREET THAT IS NOT A GENEROUS DONOR TO THE MEX FASCIST PARTY OF LA RAZA! IT'S ALL ABOUT KEEPING WAGES DEPRESSED!
"In fact, the island’s massive debt is the result of its colonial legacy, a decades-long economic recession resulting from runaway US corporations seeking cheaper labor elsewhere, and the financial looting of the island by Wall Street which has long profited from buying up its high risk and high return debt."
Wall Street demands Puerto Rico pay up
By Rafael Azul
5 October 2017
A day after Trump’s visit to Puerto Rico, where he contemptuously told survivors that they were not facing a “real catastrophe” like Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and that their demands for emergency aid were throwing the US budget “out of whack,” administration officials made it clear there would be no debt relief for the hurricane-ravaged US territory.
Trump tossed out paper towels and other supplies at a local church in what might be described as the billionaire president’s “let them eat paper towels” moment. With 95 percent of the island’s residents without power, half the population without clean water, a lack of gasoline and medical supplies, and a death toll, which is officially 34 now and potentially hundreds more, the president said the condition on the island due to the federal response was “nothing short of a miracle.”
This contrasts sharply with a statement of the UK-based anti-hunger organization Oxfam, which said last week that it would provide relief to the island because of the Trump administration’s “slow and inadequate” response.
Prior to the visit, Trump sat down with Fox News correspondent Geraldo Rivera. In a pre-recorded interview, which was aired Tuesday night, the president blurted out that it was likely that Puerto Rico’s massive debt would have to be wiped out due to huge recovery costs now estimated to be $90 billion.
BLOG: WAIT AND SEE WHO PAYS UP THE CRONY BANKSTERS!
BLOG: WAIT AND SEE WHO PAYS UP THE CRONY BANKSTERS!
“We are going to wipe that out,” declared the president in reference to Puerto Rico’s $74 billion debt obligation. “They owe a lot of money to your friends on Wall Street and we’re going to have to wipe that out,” Trump said in pseudo-populist fashion. “I don’t know if it’s Goldman Sachs but whoever it is you can wave goodbye to that.”
The president’s remark produced a sell-off on Wednesday of Puerto Rico’s defaulted bonds, which dropped from 56 percent of face value to 36 percent.
Administration officials rushed to downplay the president’s remarks and reassure the vulture capitalists which control the island’s debt.
Trump’s own budget chief, Mick Mulvaney, told CNN, “I wouldn’t take it word for word with that. We are not going to deal right now with those fundamental difficulties that Puerto Rico had before the storm.”
The head of the government’s Office of Management of Budget made it clear that there was no plan to relieve the island of its debt burden. “Puerto Rico’s going to have to figure out how to fix the errors that it’s made for the last generation on its own finances.”
In other words, Puerto Ricans did this to themselves. Storm or no storm, they must pay up.
In fact, the island’s massive debt is the result of its colonial legacy, a decades-long economic recession resulting from runaway US corporations seeking cheaper labor elsewhere, and the financial looting of the island by Wall Street which has long profited from buying up its high risk and high return debt.
In June 2015 then Puerto Rican governor Alejandro Padilla, declared Puerto Rico was in a “death spiral” because its debt is “not payable… There is no other option… this is not politics, this is math.” Having already imposed draconian austerity measures, Padilla demanded concessions from debt holders.
However, the Promise Act, passed by the Obama administration, mandated that the debt crisis would be resolved with ever more savage austerity measures that involve the dismantling of public budgets and social services. The Promise Act imposed a non-elected Financial Oversight and Management Board that would administer Puerto Rico’s budget and distribute the debt payments among debt holders.
The appointed members were front men for powerful financial interests. For example, two of its members, José Ramón Gonzalez and Carlos García came straight out of Banco de Santander, one of the banks that, operating in the middle, between Puerto Rico and the hedge funds, profited greatly from designing “financial instruments” and then selling them to investors.
And not just Banco de Santander; other Wall Street banks, including the infamous Goldman Sachs helped convince Puerto Rican officials to borrow more at terms that have been described as “payday loans” in a report by the Refund America Project.
The report describes how a $4.3 billion loan quickly morphed into a $33.5 billion debt, through the mechanism of compounded interest. It suggests that this portion of the debt violated Puerto Rican law and amounted to “unconstitutional debt” that can justifiably be repudiated. Tellingly, the current administration of Governor Ricardo Rosselló refused to cooperate with this study.
“We plan to do more with less,” was the phrase Rosselló used this June to describe his administration’s plan to deal with Puerto Rico’s financial implosion. He then went on to list the various austerity measures and job cuts that had already been enacted since he took office this January.
The Puerto Rican government’s $74 billion in tax-exempt bond debt to hedge funds and wealthy investors is the result more than ten years of negative economic growth, at the rate of about two percent per year, and mass emigration of skilled and professional workers in the context of some three decades of deindustrialization.
Prior to the storm the official rate of unemployment was 11.5 percent. Forty-six percent of all households existed under a dismal poverty line. One-third of workers were ineligible for Social Security benefits. A record 400,000 Puerto Ricans have left since 2007 with another 240,000 are expected to leave by 2025.
Retirees are among the most vulnerable. Three years ago, the Puerto Rican government changed the retirement system that guaranteed public sector workers a full pension after 30 years of employment to a system that forces workers to work up to 15 additional years for full benefits.
Driving the discussion in the bankruptcy court over further public pension cuts is the fact that the system is scheduled to run out of money this July, leaving some $50 billion owed to retirees unpaid. It is anticipated that ten percent or more may by slashed from existing pensions. Caps on Medicare imposed by the federal government force many seniors to pay more for their medical care
Had the US Federal Reserve bank adopted the same criteria toward Puerto Rico that it did toward Wall Street financial institutions behind the 2008–2009 crash and deemed “too big to fail,” it would have bought up Puerto Rico’s toxic assets long ago. That never happened and now the suffering people on the island are to be squeezed again.
Instead, the working class in Puerto Rico and on the US mainland should demand the cancellation of the debt and an end to the plundering of public assets. The Wall Street banks and other giant financial institutions should be transformed into public enterprises democratically controlled and collectively owned by the working class.
Only in this way can the necessary hundreds of billions be poured into Puerto Rico to repair and update the electrical power grid, the water system and flood control system, roads and schools, which are essential for the functioning of a modern society.
BLOG: WE KNOW HOW FAST THE WHITE HOUSE CAN HAND CRONY BANKSTERS BILLIONS IN NO-STRINGS, NO INTEREST LOANS!!!
"Trump previously denounced Puerto Rican residents for the massive debt owed to the Wall Street banks, which is the result of the island’s colonial legacy, a decades-long economic recession and wholesale looting by financial speculators who control Puerto Rican debt."
Trump’s photo-op in Puerto Rico
By Rafael Azul
4 October 2017
Two weeks after Hurricane Maria struck Puerto Rico, leaving millions without electricity, water and other basic necessities, US President Donald Trump did a quick fly-in and fly-out Tuesday to pronounce what a wonderful job his administration has done to address the crisis.
Trump’s entourage included his wife Melania, some cabinet members, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and Jenniffer González, chairwoman of the Puerto Rico Republican Party and the island’s nonvoting member of the US House of Representative.
The president’s handlers made sure that Trump—who clearly did not want to be there—appeared in public as little as possible to prevent any opportunity for public protest. After a little more than four hours, the president flew off, an hour ahead of schedule.
The people the president did speak to were preselected. He visited an upscale neighborhood in Guaynabo, west of the capital city of San Juan, which has been one of the fastest areas to have electricity, communication and other services restored. At a local church, he threw rolls of paper towels out to a crowd in the most demeaning fashion, later saying, “There’s a lot of love in this room, a lot of love. Great people.”
During his press conference, however, Trump could hardly contain his contempt for the population of the US territory. The recovery effort and the current situation on the island, he claimed, was “really nothing short of a miracle,” adding that it was nothing like the “real catastrophe” that occurred during Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
Following the press conference, Trump visited the Muñoz Rivera housing project in Guaynabo. One of the housing project residents, Raúl Cardona, told Trump “he should visit the central parts of the islands, where a lot of people have no food, no water, where a lot of people have died. What he saw in Guaynabo was nothing compared to the rest of the island,” Cardona told the El Nuevo Día newspaper about his words with Trump.
Only four percent of the island’s 3.4 million residents have power, more than half do not have clean water, and many residents are washing in rivers. With temperatures in the 90s, the lack of air conditioning and medical attention could lead to further fatalities, particularly among the elderly and infirm. Roads are blocked with debris and standing water is attracting mosquitos that can carry deadly diseases.
Thousands remain in shelters, gasoline is scarce, ATMs are out of money, and many of the supplies sent to the island have been left on docks because of the lack of diesel for trucks. Public schools, which suffered devastating destruction, may not open for six months or more, officials have said.
Trump repeated the official claim of 16 hurricane-related fatalities. After the president left, Governor Ricardo Rosselló raised the death toll to 34. The number of fatalities is expected to grow once rescuers reach more isolated rural and mountainous areas.
Earlier in the morning, the island’s Secretary of Public Health Héctor Pesquera announced there were more than 100 cadavers in hospitals around the island, which are currently being examined to determine if they died as a result of the hurricane, the most powerful storm to hit Puerto Rico in nearly a century.
Governor Rosselló—the MIT-trained politician who was a Clinton delegate during the Democratic Party convention last year—dutifully suppressed this information during Trump’s visit. The president later praised Rosselló for “not playing politics.”
Trump previously denounced Puerto Rican residents for the massive debt owed to the Wall Street banks, which is the result of the island’s colonial legacy, a decades-long economic recession and wholesale looting by financial speculators who control Puerto Rican debt. Rosselló and his predecessors have imposed savage austerity measures, and the island, which declared bankruptcy last May, is currently under the dictatorship of a financial oversight board imposed by the Obama administration.
During a press conference, Trump—who is proposing the largest tax cut for corporations and the rich in history—complained that the recovery effort was costing the US government too much money. “Now I hate to tell you, Puerto Rico, but you’ve thrown our budget a little out of whack because we’ve spent a lot of money on Puerto Rico. And that’s fine. We’ve saved a lot of lives.”
Rosselló, who has revised upward his government’s estimate of the cost of rebuilding the island’s infrastructure to $90 billion, is seeking a low-interest emergency line of credit as soon as possible, saying otherwise the government will run out of public funds by next week.
BLOG: WE KNOW HOW FAST THE WHITE HOUSE CAN HAND CRONY BANKSTERS BILLIONS IN NO-STRINGS, NO INTEREST LOANS!!!
Trump has complained that Puerto Rican residents are not helping themselves enough and are essentially expecting government handouts. Last week he poured scorn via text message from his luxury golf course on local officials, including the mayor of San Juan, for complaining about the slowness of the administration’s response.
Shortly after Trump had left the island, US federal authorities denied Puerto Rico’s petition that recipients of food stamps (which are used by 46 percent of the population) be allowed to purchase meals in fast-food restaurants, given the scarcity of food in the island’s supermarkets.
TRUMP DEMANDS PUERTO RICO PAY THE BANKSTERS FIRST!
HOW MUCH DID SWAMP KEEPER TRUMPS HUNDREDS OF BANKRUPTCIES COST HIS BANKSTERS???
BOOK:
…………………..TRAGIC!
THE DEATH GAP: INEQUALITY IS KILLING AMERICA!
CALL IT OBAMA-CLINTONOMICS OR TRUMPERNOMICS FOR THE SUPER RICH!
Video: Trump Meets the
San Juan
Mayor Who Trashed Him
The Trump administration has handled the federal response to three consecutive devastating hurricanes quite well -- earning high marks in Texas and Florida, and pushing back against criticisms over Puerto Rico, many of which are either about personality disputes or are substantively unfair. Most objectionable was the president's unseemly war of words with the Mayor of San Juan. Sure, she appears to be a hardcore leftist and a bit of a grandstanding showboat who's given to overwrought hyperbole. But Trump and the White House would have been wiser to focus on the task at hand while leaving those criticisms to surrogates, allies, or even outside observers like this neighboring city's mayor:
The mayor of a Puerto Rican city that sits next to San Juan praised the administration's help Saturday night, and chided the "politics" of San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz, who has been criticizing President Trump. In an interview with Secrets, Guaynabo Mayor Angel Perez Otero said that in several meetings with FEMA and U.S. military officials about the recovery effort, Yulin Cruz has been absent. "I've seen other mayors participating. She's not," said Perez Otero...Asked if he has seen similar shortfalls and non-communication from the administration, Perez Otero said "that's not been my experience." He added, "There is a lot of politics in Puerto Rico."
Despite the bad blood, Trump praised Mayor Yulin Cruz in meetings with local residents on the island today:
"Your governor and your mayor have done, really, a fantastic job," Trump said while shaking hands with residents still stranded on the island.
His rave reviews of Puerto Rico's governor were even more adulatory, emphasizing the chief executive's eschewal of 'playing politics' throughout the crisis: "Your governor who I didn’t know, I heard very good things about him — he’s not even from my party, and he started right at the beginning appreciating what we did," Trump said. "He was tremendously supportive and he knew the level of problem that you had at the beginning before, and what happened with respect to the tremendous storms that hit your beautiful island...Governor, I just want to tell you that right from the beginning this governor did not play politics, he didn't play it at all. He was saying it like it was, and he was giving us the highest grades. On behalf of our country, I want to thank you." By going out of his way to mention the governor's lack of political posturing, Trump was implicitly criticizing Mayor Cruz, to whom he paid far less attention during today's events. NBC's Andrea Mitchell didn't seem too pleased with this treatment:
Mitchell is reaching here, especially given Trump's well-established reputation for rhetorically roughing up critics. Politely shaking Cruz's hand and saying nice things about her to Puerto Ricans during his tour is about as gracious and magnanimous as he gets toward someone who's been a loud thorn in his side. Trump may not deserve plaudits for not behaving like a boor, but he dialed back his usual modus operandi in this case, and appropriately so.
October 4, 2017
Trump gets the media's middle finger on Puerto Rico
We see the media intentionally take Trump out of context all the time, and his comments in Puerto Rico make for one of the most blatant instances. On CBS radio, they said he complained about Puerto Rico putting a hole in the budget and left out where he said that is fine.
Here is the actual quote.
Trump pledged an all-out effort to help the island but added: "Now I hate to tell you, Puerto Rico, but you've thrown our budget a little out of whack[.]" (This is where MSNBC cut off the quote. Trump goes on:) "Because we've spent a lot of money on Puerto Rico. And that's fine. We've saved a lot of lives."
Why would MSNBC and Rachel Maddow cut off the last part of the quote? The answer is obvious. She really doesn't want her listeners to see that he said that is fine.
Heading in the supposedly conservative Newsmax:
Trump in Devastated Puerto Rico: You've Thrown Budget 'Out of Whack'
Newsmax has been moving left for a long time. There is no reason at all that they couldn't have put and that is fine in their headline.
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