Political Quotes

“It is possible that even after a majority of the board, four or five members--well, four members would be a majority--would ultimately put Puerto Rico through a series of hurdles. Let's say it even meets those hurdles. A minority of the board--three members, I don't know--may be ideologically determined. They may believe the bond holders deserve every last penny, and the pensioners deserve nothing. I don't know. But since we create overly broad powers, we leave critical elements of the deciding process in the sole discretion of the members of this board. Then we say: By the way, it is not a simple majority that will give us and grant us the pathway to restructuring; it is a minority. We need a super majority. And by virtue of having a super majority and minority, only three of those seven members could say: No, we are still not satisfied. We are not giving you access to restructuring, in which case even though Puerto Rico has done a series of things--maybe even far beyond what they are willing to do for the well-being of their people but to get to restructuring, to get to the bankruptcy court that my colleague from Washington State is speaking about--they could still fall flat because that minority could deny them that possibility.”