ANOTHER SNEAK ATTACK

True to form for this administration and Congress, when there is on overload of attention given to pending legislation debate such as the Crap and Tax Disaster bill, always be on your guard. Ever since Obama took office, when there is a major debate on something in Congress in which there is an overload of media attention, there is always some other legislation being slipped through in the shadows. The media hoopla generated by Washington has been nothing more than a distraction to keep our attention off other things they know the majority of Americans will oppose.

This time, it's H.R. 2499, the Puerto Rico Democracy Act of 2009. The bill was introduced in May 2009, and has been in the House Natural Resources committee ever since. But, according to Majority Leader STENY HOYER, the House will vote on this bill later this week. (SOURCE)

There are a few problems with this. The first thing is that Puerto Rico doesn't want it. This has been attempted for years and years unsuccessfully. This legislation will force the will of Washington on the will of the people of Puerto Rico. We can certainly relate. If passed, Puerto Rico would be forced to have a referendum on statehood every eight years. If the majority vote against it, then there would have to be a second vote with the only choices as full independence from the U.S. or statehood. Since Puerto Rico can't economically afford full independence, can you say "rigged?"

And just in case someone compares this to Alaska and Hawaii. Territories such as Alaska and Hawaii have only been granted statehood when there was overwhelming support among the population of those territories for it. Puerto Rico has no such support for statehood. I do not think it would be a good idea at all to grant statehood t0 a territory where there is not strong support for it.

If Puerto Rico becomes a state, there will be billions, if not trillions, of dollars poured into it to bring everything such as power generating plants and sewerage treatment into compliance with U.S. laws and regulations. And, since Puerto Rico is such an impoverished nation with the average resident's income being less than half of the poorest state in the U.S., the entire population of nearly four million would be instantly eligible for all welfare entitlements including Obamacare. Like Obamacare, we simply cannot afford this. This would balloon our deficit even further out of control. I can foresee billions going into Puerto Rico with little or no accountability. It's not like it hasn't happened before.

I think the last point is the real impetus. The Democrats are hoping to create a four million strong voting block, thinking the people of Puerto Rico would vote Democratic to keep the handouts coming. Puerto Rico's representation in Washington would be greater than half of the states here potentially locking up a Democrat majority. If this is true, such a plan could easily backfire. The current governor or Puerto Rico, Luis Fortuno, identified as a Republican when he served as Resident Commissioner in the U. S. House of Representatives from 2005 to 2009.

The Democrats are still trying to do all the damage they can before November. They see the polls, they know if the mid-term elections were held today, all Democratic incumbents would be packing their bags. numbers have held since last year and are not expected to change. So the big push to further their agenda as much as possible is definitely on.

Just one more reminder that when there's a lot of attention about something that's being debated in Congress, look behind them to see what's REALLY going on.