Puerto Rico's financial crisis affects Connecticut too

Puerto Rico is looking economic calamity in the face. Among its woes: $73 billion in debt, due this year, with little hope of being able to pay it; a rate of poverty greater than that of any U.S. state; and a shrinking population.

The fate of Puerto Rico is important to Connecticut, which has more Puerto Ricans per capita than any other state — a population that is rapidly growing, in part because of the island's financial situation.

Congress has the ability to mitigate at least some of the island's crisis.

Earlier this year, U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal introduced legislation to allow Puerto Rican cities to declare bankruptcy to restructure their debt, just as cities on the mainland can. That seems only fair.



He and other Democratic senators also put forth bills to extend the Earned Income Tax Credit and the Child Tax Credit to residents of Puerto Rico. Doing that would bring some relief.

President Obama has asked Congress to allow the entire commonwealth to declare Chapter 9 bankruptcy. That, too, is a reasonable move.



One reason such relief for Puerto Rico has stalled in Congress is that hedge funds — many of which invested heavily in the island, despite warnings that such a move was risky — would be on the hook. Some hedge fund managers have cozy relationships with Republicans in both chambers.

True, the commonwealth's problems are, in part, its own fault, due to overspending and reported corruption. But many of its woes stem from its decades as a second-class U.S. citizen.

A humanitarian crisis in Puerto Rico is Connecticut's crisis, and the nation's, too. We can't turn our backs on it.

Copyright © 2015, Hartford Courant
Puerto Rico's financial crisis affects Connecticut too

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