[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 162 (2016), Part 4]
[House]
[Page 4818]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




               PUERTO RICO AND WHO WILL BAIL OUT AMERICA?

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Alabama (Mr. Brooks) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BROOKS of Alabama. Mr. Speaker, America has blown through the $19 
trillion debt mark and rapidly approaches the $20 trillion debt mark.
  The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office warns Washington that 
America faces an unending string of trillion-dollar-a-year deficits 
beginning a mere 6 years from now and that America's debt will blow 
through the $29 trillion debt mark in a decade. Further, as debt 
principal and interest rates surge, America's debt service costs will 
increase by $600 billion a year within a decade.
  For perspective, $600 billion is more than America spends on national 
defense, which begs the question: Where will that $600 billion in 
additional debt service cost come from?
  America must learn from financially reckless nations like Greece and 
Venezuela, and from Puerto Rico, an American territory that has had its 
credit rating cut to junk bond status and is defaulting on its $70 
billion in debt. For emphasis, Puerto Rico owes roughly 40 percent of 
all Puerto Rican tax collections, $4.1 billion, in debt payments this 
year. That is tax revenues not building roads, not educating children, 
and not growing the economy.
  Puerto Rico, like America, suffers from a bloated central government, 
welfare programs that undermine the work ethic, decades of financial 
mismanagement by elected leaders, and a resulting anemic economy and 
shrinking job market that causes roughly 7,000 citizens to flee Puerto 
Rico each month.
  Only 40 percent of Puerto Ricans are employed or looking for work. 
Why bother to get a job when American taxpayers pay Puerto Ricans to 
not work by doling out free food, free health care, and other welfare 
worth $1,743 per month, almost $600 more than minimum wage take-home 
earnings?
  Puerto Rico's debt defaults and resulting economic morass have forced 
Puerto Rico to delay tax refunds, fire public sector workers, raise 
sales taxes to a record 11.5 percent, and close over 100 schools.
  Unfortunately, these austerity measures, and more, are inadequate 
because Puerto Rico's self-serving and financially irresponsible 
elected officials waited too long. Puerto Rico still cannot pay its 
bills or creditors.
  Puerto Rico Governor Alejandro Padilla recently stated that, if 
Congress does not intervene, ``a humanitarian crisis will envelop the 
3.5 million American citizens on the island.''
  Puerto Rico asks Congress to let Puerto Rico default on its legal 
operations via bankruptcy or force American taxpayers to bail out 
Puerto Rico's decades of financial mismanagement. Never mind that, 
according to a 2010 Government Accountability Office report, mainland 
American taxpayers already subsidize Puerto Rico to the tune of $16 
billion per year, or roughly $4,500 per Puerto Rican.
  As Puerto Rico desperately seeks an American taxpayer bailout, 
Americans should ask: Who will bail out America when America defaults 
on its debt?
  Mr. Speaker, America must learn from Puerto Rico, a territory that is 
spiraling into bankruptcy and insolvency because of a $20,000-per-
capita debt burden--a debt burden, I might add, that is three times 
better than America's $60,000-per-capita debt burden.
  If America's creditors stop loaning America money, if America is 
forced to go cold turkey on its debt addiction, America could be forced 
to slash military pay or eliminate the volunteer Army altogether and go 
back to a draft, cut Social Security and Medicare benefits, and the 
like.
  Mr. Speaker, America's spending binge and accompanying debt and 
deficits are unsustainable. If voters do not elect financially 
responsible officials to Washington, America will endure the same 
debilitating insolvency and bankruptcy that wreaks havoc in Greece and 
Puerto Rico--with one major difference. Unlike Greece, which has been 
bailed out three times by the European community, and unlike Puerto 
Rico, which may yet be bailed out by American taxpayers, there is no 
one--no one--who can or will bail out America.

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