Instead, they are fleeing from them. And that is not because of any act of God, that is because of acts of government.

In California, I find these hearings most reassuring. I find some comfort in knowing there is a government as badly managed as my own.

I was concerned that this breach of faith would cost Puerto Rico access to credit markets at reasonable rates for many years to come.

The central premise of PROMESA implies that the people of Puerto Rico are not competent to govern themselves, and I reject that premise categorically.

They do need to take responsibility for their own actions and their own finances.

I opposed PROMESA because I felt it broke the most important promise that a government can make, and that is to put its full faith and credit behind its bonds.

Until the people of Puerto Rico take responsibility for their votes, for the officials they have elected, and then set things right, how can they make a case for statehood?

It is not clear to me that any of these objectives have been achieved.

That is another way of saying let's invite corruption into the process.

Puerto Rico's promise of full faith and credit now means absolutely nothing.

If you spend more than you take in, you are going to run out of money. If you walk away from your debt, people stop loaning you money. And socialism sucks.

And it may be something that is simply endemic to grants, and maybe we ought to be just doing a lot less of that.