Puerto Rico Reverts To Leftism, Bankruptcy Looms
The Island of Puerto Rico has long debated the issue of statehood. For the sake of the US I would hope that it would reconsider the idea-we already have Illinois. Once again we see the disastrous results of liberal economic policies. In 2008 Puerto Rico elected Luis Fortuno of the New Progressive Party as Governor. In spite of the leftist connotation of his party's name, Mr. Fortuno's policies were very much conservative. Faced with a $3.3 billion deficit he cut income taxes by half, reduced the corporate income tax from 39% to 30% and eliminated over 38,000 government jobs. the tax cuts apparently worked in that the island experienced a jump in investment and made modest economic gains in 2012. Unfortunate for Mr. Fortuno, his success was short lived. The public unions that make up one-third of the Island's workforce expressed their displeasure by voting him out of office. Mr. Fortuno was replaced by their candidate, Alejandro Garcia Padilla of the Popular Democratic Pa...