Political Quotes

“I rise today to enlighten my colleagues on how the tax cuts legislation will affect my district, the Territory of Guam. Because Guam follows the mirror tax code, tax changes enacted by Congress are mirrored by the Guam tax code, and the tax cuts being contemplated by Congress this week would have a substantial effect on our island's tax revenues. On Guam we face great challenges due to a recession that continues and a slowdown in visitors to our island. Allow me, Mr. Speaker, to present the Members with the picture of the current fiscal troubles encountered by the government of Guam. The governor and the legislature are poised to enact a bill that will authorize the borrowing of in excess of $200 million from the bond market to deal with our deficit. We learned just today that Standard and Poor's recently downgraded its general credit rating for the government of Guam from BB to B, considering Guam's $416 million of current outstanding debts. This places Guam's creditworthiness into a moderate to high-risk category. Thus, in addition to lacking revenues to meet the basic needs of our community, future generations will have to shoulder the burden of excessive bond deficits and high interest repayment rates.”