Political Quotes

“Mr. Chairman, I first want to thank Chairman Bishop, Ranking Member Grijalva, Congressmen Labrador, Duffy, and Pierluisi, and many others who worked tirelessly on this legislation. Mr. Chairman, the island of Puerto Rico with a population of under 4 million people has a debt of, by some measure, $100 billion. That is a population less than the State of Louisiana, but a debt of nearly $100 billion. We have three options: We can do nothing and continue to allow this island territory to continue spiraling downward in a financial and humanitarian crisis. We can provide financial oversight. We can relieve regulation, help to reignite the economy, and allow for a negotiation between the creditors and the debtor. Or we can pay off their debt and add to the already $19 trillion irresponsible debt of the American Government today. Those are the options that are out there. I will tell you, I also struggled with what the right conservative solution was in this case. Ultimately, there is just one right answer. Doing nothing will simply worsen the financial condition, will probably put more burden on us to actually bail out the Nation on Congress and on the White House to do that. I oppose a bailout, and I oppose putting taxpayer dollars on the hook to pay off nearly a dozen years of irresponsible spending of the Puerto Rican Government. So establishing a financial oversight board similar to what was done in Washington, D.C.…”