[lg policy] Romney=?windows-1252?Q?=92s_?=Conservative Credibility Problems Now Being Tested in Puerto Rico

[Harold Schiffman]

Roberto De Posada: Romney’s Conservative Credibility Problems Now
Being Tested in Puerto Rico

 By Roberto De Posada

Published March 15, 2012

Fox News Latino


Mitt Romney has a credibility problem among conservative voters. Time
and time again, the former Massachusetts’ Governor has been on both
sides of almost every issue. And now, in an effort to gain the 20
delegates in the Republican primary in Puerto Rico, he’s at it again.

Addressing conservative audiences, Governor Romney has stated that he
wants English to be the official language of the U.S. government and
that he wants to reduce Federal spending. However, in Puerto Rico,
Romney has announced his support for statehood for the island. In his
efforts to win the support of Puerto Rico’s Governor in the GOP
primary, he has offered full support for statehood without any kind of
language or budgetary requirements to protect the interest of the
American public.

This is another example of Romney talking from both sides of his
mouth. An unconditional support for Puerto Rican statehood is in
direct conflict with the efforts to make English the official language
of the U.S. and his promise to reduce spending.

Many argue that we don’t have to worry about statehood for Puerto
Rico, because this is simply not going to happen anytime soon. Well,
the fact is that Puerto Rico will hold a referendum on statehood this
November. If a majority of voters in Puerto Rico vote in favor of
statehood on that referendum, the next U.S. Congress would have to
face a petition for admission of Puerto Rico as the 51st State.

Adding Puerto Rico as the 51st U.S. State would be a huge fiscal
burden for American taxpayers. It would bring immediate demands for a
massive transfer of Federal welfare to residents of Puerto Rico. The
2010 Census shows that Puerto Rico’s per capita income is $10,762,
half as much as the poorest state in the Union—currently
Mississippi—and a third of the national average. Also 41.2 percent of
Puerto Rican families live under the poverty level, more than four
times the U.S. average.

The Census also reports that only 15 percent of residents of Puerto
Rico are fluent in English.  Puerto Rico has two official
languages—English and Spanish—but it operates its government and
schools in Spanish, which sets them apart from all other 50 states.
There is a long history of Congress requiring English to be the
language of government and schools for territories seeking to be
admitted to the Union, e.g. Louisiana, Arizona, New Mexico and
Oklahoma.  For all of the territories that had large non-English
speaking populations, Congress announced before the territories voted
on the question of statehood that a change in language policy would be
a prerequisite for admission.

On language alone, if Puerto Rico were to become our 51st State, the
potential costs under current conditions would be astronomical. This
would result in establishing a Canadian-style system of bilingualism
in the United States government and its cost has been estimated to be
$25.67 billion, per year. No territory with an official language other
than English has ever been admitted to the Union.

Gov. Romney needs to come clean with Republican voters and be
transparent. If he truly believes that English should be the official
language of the U.S. and that federal spending must be reduced, than
he must tell voters before the Republican primary on the island that
Puerto Rico should have to adopt significant language policy
changes—that is, change from de facto Spanish to de facto English—and
achieve, at the very least, substantial economic parity with the
poorest state in the Union before Congress and the President should
agree to admit it as the 51st State. This will be another test on
Governor Romney’s commitment to conservative values.

Robert G. de Posada is a conservative strategist and the former
President of The Latino Coalition.

Read more: http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/politics/2012/03/15/romneys-conservative-credibility-problems-now-being-tested-in-puerto-rico/#ixzz1pIIOroK0


--
**************************************
N.b.: Listing on the lgpolicy-list is merely intended as a service to its
members
and implies neither approval, confirmation nor agreement by the owner or
sponsor of the list as to the veracity of a message's contents. Members who
disagree with a message are encouraged to post a rebuttal, and to write
directly to the original sender of any offensive message.  A copy of this
may be forwarded to this list as well.  (H. Schiffman, Moderator)

For more information about the lgpolicy-list, go to
https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/
listinfo/lgpolicy-list
*******************************************

_______________________________________________
This message came to you by way of the lgpolicy-list mailing list
lgpolicy-list at groups.sas.upenn.edu
To manage your subscription unsubscribe, or arrange digest format: https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/listinfo/lgpolicy-list