Printable View
Puerto Rican Statehood Bill Picks Up Steam
by Brian Darling
05/24/2010
Anti-Washington Candidates Win
Rand Paul, Republican nominee for the Kentucky Senate seat Sen. Jim Bunning is vacating, said this last Tuesday after his victory in the primary: “I have a message, a message from the Tea Party, a message that is loud and clear and does not mince words: We have come to take our government back.â€
Please contact your Senators to oppose this bill!
For further information on the danger which statehood for Puerto Rico poses for the linquistic and cultural unity of the United States, each of the following organizations advocates for English as the official language of the United States and specifically opposes either statehood for Puerto Rico or statehood without a strong English language requirement for its government:
English First
No Statehood for Puerto Rico Campaign
http://englishfirst.org/puerto/
ProEnglish
No Puerto Rican Statehood Without English
http://www.proenglish.org/issues/pr/index.html
U.S. English
Chaiman quoted in opposition to H.R. 2499
http://www.us-english.org/view/776
As proof that constituent pressure can be effective, Rep. Ted Poe (R-TX) was a co-sponsor of the Puerto Rican Statehood bill, yet voted against it when it came before the House. Disappointingly, other conservative lawmakers who voted for the bill were Dan Burton (R-IN), Peter King (R-NY), and Mike Pence (R-?), who also is very influencial within the Republican Party structure.
Business interests clearly support this legislation, or it wouldn't be brought up continuously like this: evidently the Caribbean is another part of the hemisphere-wide "Free Trade Area" large business interests have their eye on.
How weird that Luis Guttierez is actually on the right side on this issue while wrong on immigration.
An older opinion piece from The Heritage Foundation. I hope people are paying attention to the danger H.R. 2499 poses to our national unity and, ultimately, sovereignty!
Puerto Rico Democracy Act – Legislation Biased in Favor of Statehood
Posted April 27th, 2010 at 1:15pm in Ongoing Priorities with 107 comments Print This Post
According to Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD), the House will vote on H.R. 2499, the Puerto Rico Democracy Act, later this week. The legislation provides Puerto Rico a two stage voting process and makes some non-resident Puerto Ricans eligible to vote on Puerto Rican statehood. This legislation has rigged the process in favor of making Puerto Rico the 51st state and is not a fair way to force statehood on a Commonwealth whose people may not want it. Furthermore, this may be an expensive proposition for the American people who are already on the hook for approximately $12.9 trillion in national debt.
This bill attempts to rig the voting process and denies the American people a real say on the issue of whether they want to allow Puerto Rico to be granted statehood. The fact of the matter is that Puerto Ricans have rejected statehood numerous times and this bill seems to have been written in a way to fast track statehood without a majority of Puerto Ricans favoring the idea. Furthermore, the people of the United States should be allowed a vote on whether they want to admit Puerto Rico as a new state. If the people of Puerto Rico can vote, the people of the United States should have a vote.
The legislation contains many questionable provisions. First, the legislation sets up a voting process rigged for success. The legislation sets up a preliminary vote and the voters are given two options. If a majority of Puerto Ricans vote in favor of changing the status of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico to “a different political status,â€