In the wake of Republican tax bill passage, Puerto Rico’s Governor Ricardo Rosselló is vowing to rally Puerto Ricans residing in states across the country, all 5.3 million of them, to vote against Republicans in the midterm elections next year. His plan to mobilize mainland Puerto Ricans to shake up the political landscape is in direct response to the new tax bill, which he believes will cripple the island territory’s already ailing economy three months after Hurrican Maria.
“Everybody has seen the damage of the storm and yet policy decisions go in the opposite direction of where they should go,” Rosselló said, via Politico. “We’re not just going to stand by. We are going to take action.”
Rosselló, a Democrat and member of the island’s pro-statehood New Progressive Party, is incensed that the Republican tax plan taxes U.S. businesses that operate in Puerto Rico at a higher rate than their counterparts on the mainland. Even as a million Americans on the island remain without power, and 250,000 are without clean water.
With the passage of the new tax plan, which President Donald Trump signed late last week, both House and Senate Republicans voted for a 12.5 percent tax on intellectual property income of U.S. companies on the island and a minimum 10 percent tax on their profits in Puerto Rico.
Puerto Rico, Day 91:
—Millions of people still w/o power
—Hundreds of thousands still w/o clean water
—Still a humanitarian emergency
The just-passed GOP tax bill places new and unfair penalties on half of the island's economy. Kicking PR while it's down.https://t.co/Vw5JCnNbah— Eric Holthaus (@EricHolthaus) December 20, 2017
With a debt soaring past $70 billion, another $40 billion in pension liabilities, a series of bankruptcies (which Trump had a hand in), and a post-hurricane economy that was already devastated by U.S. government machinations long before Maria, the new Republican tax bill could cost Puerto Rico up to 200,000 jobs.
One estimate says that the Republican tax bill could cost Puerto Rico up to 200,000 jobs.
That would be on top of the 32,000 jobs already lost since Hurricane Maria. https://t.co/MqDDoO56ia
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) December 20, 2017
In response to this latest afront by Trump and the Republican-led Congress toward the people of Puerto Rico, Rosselló has a plan of retaliation.
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