Political Quotes

“I appreciate the Senator raising the numbers and the statistics. Unfortunately, I am aware of them. They dramatize why what we do here is so critically important for the 3.5 million U.S. citizens who call Puerto Rico home. When the per capita income is almost half of what it is in the poorest State, when the other 50 percent of the population lives in poverty, including 58 percent who are children--that is why I worry when the control board can make the decision to make mandatory cuts, because how do you help these children? How do you help create a rising income? How do you ultimately, in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, which has doubled the sales tax to 11.5 percent to get income and at the same time has the lowest spending levels since 2005, as you rightly point out, with public employment down by 20 percent--they have made cuts. So it is not that they are not being responsible and making cuts, but a control board that can make even greater cuts without any say as to how it happens and where it happens and whatnot, is undemocratic. So I agree.”