Originally Posted by
MW
40% of Puerto Rico is on food stamps. There's a lot of poverty and government cheese tackers there that I'm afraid would turn into Democrat voters. We don't need another heavily democrat state.
Around 25 years ago I spent some time in Puerto Rico (3 months) and I saw a lot of slums and unemployed people that didn't really seem to have an interest in working. I'm not saying there weren't some nice areas, but the slum areas seemed to far outweigh the nicer ones. Making Puerto Rico a State won't do anything to improve tourism. Right now all an American needs to enter Puerto Rico is a state identification card (no passport required). I think the average income for the country is around $19,000 right now, however, it was much lower when I was there 25 years ago .... much, much lower.
Right now more Puerto Ricans live in the United States than do in Puerto Rico. There is little to no opportunity for the youth there and they have left the island for the mainland (here) in droves. Puerto Rico has been in a recession for over a decade.
There's a reason the Dems want the good folks of Puerto Rico to be able to vote in our elections and it's certainly not because a majority of them would vote Republican!