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May 11, 2016

Title: Washington Cannot Handle Puerto Rico Debt Crisis
Topic: Debt Crisis

Discussed by Rachel Greszler
with The Heritage Foundation (www.Heritage.org)

If Puerto Rico is bailed out from their financial woes, California, Chicago, and Detroit will demand the same.

Rachel Greszler is a Research Analysist with The Heritage Foundation. She reveals that Puerto Rico is currently $72 BILLION in debt, not including $44 BILLION in unfunded pension obligations. For the third time this year, over the weekend, Puerto Rico defaulted on their debt payments. Rachel says, “This sets a precedent for what happens in the future when we have US states like Illinois that aren’t able to pay their bills.” Companies cannot just not pay their bills and debt and remain in business. The same goes for cities, states, territories, and countries!

Rachel goes on to suggest that Puerto Rico be exempt from the Federal Minimum Wage limit of $7.25/hour, where they already have a significantly lower standard of living than American states. Requiring companies to pay that much to their hourly employees is just not feasible. Listen in as Rachel gives other suggestions that could immediately help not only the government itself, but every citizen.

NOTE: In comparison to Puerto Rico, the United States currently has over $3 TRILLION in unfunded pension obligations. This doesn’t even include the debt owed to Social Security.

Rachel’s op-ed on this topic can be found here.

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