In June of 2017 Puerto Rico’s Us citizens voted to become the 51st state of the union. Despite the boycott campaign 97% of voters chose statehood.
Over the status quo (significance) or independence. While those results seemed to show movement towards social equality and integration, some people worry that it will only help Puerto Rico but, they couldn’t be more wrong. Puerto Rico would truly help the United States in many ways which is why it should become the 51st state. Background Puerto Rico first became a U.S. territory following the Spanish-American War, which was triggered by the explosion of the U.S.S.
Maine in Havana Harbor in 1898. The war ended with the U.S. acquiring many of Spain’s possessions, such as Cuba, Guam, the Philippines and Puerto Rico.In 1952, Puerto Ricans adopted a new constitution, which established their past relationship of Puerto Rico as a commonwealth of the United States. Under that arrangement, Puerto Rico shared many similarities to U.S. states.
And gained more similarities as the Significance of the United States. Its residents elect their own legislative assembly which includes , a governor, and a representative to the U.S. House of Representatives. But unlike the U.S.
states, Puerto Ricans on the island cannot vote in presidential elections, and their representative in the House known as a resident commissioner has no vote in said elections. The island also has their own Federal Affairs Administration, based in Washington, D.C., which represents the island to the federal government. The Political Situation Puerto Rico would help increase voter turnout in the United States. Puerto Rican citizens could help reverse the trend of not voting: Puerto Rico normally boasts high voter turnout about 80 percent.That percentage is far higher than the estimated 58 percent of Americans who voted in the 2016 election, and it would be in our country’s best interest to welcome a group of politically engaged citizens to elect new members to Congress and participate in our presidential elections.
Despite some conservative member fears that inviting Puerto Ricans to contribute in the larger workings of our democracy would tip the scales in the Democratic Party’s favor. The truth is Puerto Rico would bring a diverse group of voters to the United States. A former resident commissioner for Puerto Rico said , any who assumes most Puerto Ricans would vote Democrat “don’t know Puerto Rico that well.” This is because of there diverse community when it comes to their political party. Fighting Tax Evasion The United States does not inflict any income tax on U.S.
citizens of the island that profit from Puerto Rican resources. Adding Puerto Rico to the U.S. state register would require these citizens living and working in Puerto Rico to pay federal income taxes, significantly boosting the US federal annual revenues. This would also mean that American companies would no longer be able to move their businesses offshore to Puerto Rico to evade taxes, which is a current and significant problem in the U.S. Making Puerto Rico a state would limit access to corporate corruption channels significantly.
Morality The United States went into war with Spain and ended up gaining Puerto Rico. But rather than treat it as one of its own, America barely did anything for the island nation. They imposed US laws on the country but ignored calls for independence until now. In 1917, Puerto Ricans where given US citizenship so they could participate in the war.
Although Puerto Rico has experienced good times with US support, it is still unfair for a country, territory, or significance to have US laws imposed on them but still have no say in Congress. In becoming a state they would have that say by being party to more than one election at a time. Opposition The United States would become responsible for Puerto Rico’s obvious financial troubles. This is as good a reason as any for the United States to refuse statehood to Puerto Rico. There has never been a requirement for territories to be solvent before they become states and why should that start now. This could be true but there is also the strong possibility that with the help of the US Puerto Rico could dig themselves out of the hole they have sunken into.
And if we are being honest with ourselves the US is part of the reason PR is in such financial trouble. For example while in the wreckage of a hurricane PR was not given assistance from their country and had to look for help elsewhere. This only put them in deeper debt. Conclusion In conclusion yes there are plenty of reasons for not granting statehood to Puerto Rico but there are plenty more reasons to grant it.
Puerto Rico would benefit from the US as much as the US would benefit from Puerto Rico. That is the only truth that you should believe, so I ask today significance or state.
