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The Rum Tax and Puerto Rico

Reports on the “Fiscal Cliff Bill” are finding humor in some of the provisions, including the extension of the cover-over subsidies on rum from Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Some are reporting this as “a new tax” or a “rum subsidy,” and the Washington Post described it as one “of the more curious tax provisions,”saying, “Most of that money is transferred to Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, who use the revenue to support their rum industries.”Read More »The Rum Tax and Puerto Rico

Columbia Law School Expert Analyzes Puerto Rico Plebiscite Vote

Columbia Law School professor Christina Duffy Ponsa has published a thoughtful essay about the November 6th Puerto Rico plebiscite.  A nationally recognized expert on the constitutional implications of American territorial expansion, Ms. Duffy Ponsa’s analysis is a concise, easy read on the implications of the recent vote.  She wrote:Read More »Columbia Law School Expert Analyzes Puerto Rico Plebiscite Vote

Young Democrats Support Puerto Rican Statehood

The Young Democrats of America (YDA) passed a resolution at their winter meeting in Salt Lake City this week, “urging President Barack Obama and the United States Congress to take action on the irrefutable and clear mandate sent by the people of Puerto Rico on November 6th, 2012 during which the current territorial political relationship of the island with the United States was rejected and an overwhelming majority voted in favor of Puerto Rico becoming the 51st state of the Union.”Read More »Young Democrats Support Puerto Rican Statehood

White House: Puerto Rico Vote Was Clear

White House Director of Hispanic Media Luis Miranda issued a statement last night clarifying President Obama’s position on the recent Puerto Rico plebiscite vote in which 54% of voters selected to terminate Puerto Rico’s territorial status and 61% of the voters who chose a new political status for Puerto Rico selected statehood.Read More »White House: Puerto Rico Vote Was Clear

McClintock: Congress Must Take Action

In his first formal remarks on the U.S. mainland following the historic November 6, 2012 plebiscite in which the continuation of Puerto Rico’s territorial status was rejected by 54% of the island’s voters, Puerto Rico’s second highest government official called upon the United States Congress to “tear down” the anachronistic wall of segregation and inequality that for nearly a century has deprived Puerto Ricans of the most basic rights of their American citizenship, and allow Puerto Rico to become a state.Read More »McClintock: Congress Must Take Action