Political Quotes

“I would also say to my colleague that I think the mystery here is some people think that what will happen is it will just get worse in Puerto Rico, and that is true if we don't make the right decisions. This is a time where we need to come together. We all need to come together and come up with a solution that we believe in. A solution that we know has legal certainty because we are going to have thornier questions to answer. I ask my colleague from New Jersey if he is aware that Puerto Ricans don't have to stay in Puerto Rico? They don't have to stay there. In fact, they have come to the United States, and we have seen over the last several years that 300,000 Puerto Ricans have come to the United States of America. That is how many have come. Somebody estimated for me that last year 80,000 came. So, if they have 45 percent poverty rate and 12 percent unemployment and now you are going to put the people and the government of Puerto Rico at the mercy of four people they don't even know and they don't even get a say in the process, I guarantee you people are going to leave. So that 300,000 people has cost us an additional $4.1 billion in the United States of America. Basically, every Puerto Rican who moves to the mainland costs us about $2,500, and we believe that, over the last several years, it has been about $175 million per year. OK. So the reason I am asking this is because I am trying to understand whether our colleagues understand this.…”