Bernie Opposes "Promesa (Promise)" Bill for Puerto Rico (lowers minimum wage by $3/hr)

[amborin]

http://money.cnn.com/2016/05/20/news/economy/puerto-rico-hillary-clinton/index.html


Hillary Clinton is on board with the bipartisan plan to rescue Puerto Rico from near economic collapse, but Senator Bernie Sanders issued a strong statement Friday evening against it.

The White House and the House reached a deal late Wednesday to aid Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory that has amassed $70 billion in debt and has been languishing in recession for nearly a decade. The Senate is expected to go along with the bill.

snip

Sanders, who is challenging Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination, said, "I am proud to stand in strong opposition to this bill." He suggested the rescue plan would benefit Wall Street "while workers, senior citizens and children are punished.

snip

The compromise bill is known as the PROMESA, the Spanish word for "promise." It would create an oversight board to control the island's finances and come up with a plan to pay back the massive debt.

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CNN failed to mention:

"A new congressional bill, HR 4900, calls for the reduction of the minimum wage in Puerto Rico from $7.25 an hour, to $4.25 an hour.

The bill is also creates a Financial Control Board to make sure that this new minimum wage law is enforced.
With a perverse sense of humor, the US congress titled this bill as “PROMESA for Puerto Rico.

[nadinbrzezinski]

1. Not sense of humor.

Shock doctrine

[Uncle Joe]

2. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, amborin.

[lapfog_1]

3. oversight board

ask the of Flynt how that worked out for them.

[HooptieWagon]

4. This is what Hillary has in mind for the U.S.

[bjo59]

29. Exactly right. All the Clinton supporters who are ecstatic over Clinton shoving "the guy with the

halo" out of the way and making it to the position of nominee no matter the consequences don't understand what those consequences will be, clearly. If they think their support of Clinton will be remembered and "appreciated" in the form of being exempted from the austerity measures on the horizon, they're not thinking. It's a shame but they will have loudly and proudly asked for it.

[One Black Sheep]

5. "We promise to lower your wages even further!"

7.25 an hour is obviously far too rich for the peasants.

[liberal_at_heart]

6. We will treat Puerto Rico the same way Europe treated Greece. Austerity. Shameful.

Glad to see Bernie opposing it.

[bjo59]

30. And "we" (they) will treat us the same way too when our turn comes. as it surely will.

[KingFlorez]

7. He also seems to want to boot Puerto Rico out of America

Last week, he was talking independence and practically said America was practicing colonialism in Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico needs statehood, not the boot. Sanders independence plan is worse and not very inclusive.

[One Black Sheep]

8. Bernie is right about Puerto Rico

Maybe you are so stuck on "American empire" that you can't see it.

[KingFlorez]

10. Of course, Bernie Sanders is always 100% right about everything and believes he is superior

Puerto Rico has never favored independence and statehood received the most votes in the last status referendum, but nevermind that, whatever Bernie says goes, because his opinion comes in ahead of everything else.

[One Black Sheep]

11. Not everything, but Bernie has the potential to be another FDR

And we sure need one these days. The incrementalism stuff isn't cutting it. That approach has failed.

[840high]

13. .that^

[amborin]

14. Clinton's Hedge Funds Harmed Puerto Rico:

How Hedge Funds Deepen Puerto Rico’s Debt Crisis

Vulture investors have descended on the commonwealth, taking advantage of a debt crisis that has impoverished citizens and created massive unemployment.

David Dayen

“This is a distress call from a ship of 3.5 million American citizens that have been lost at sea,” ..... Puerto Rico now carries $73 billion in debt, a sum that García Padilla had termed “not payable” in June.

Successive governments have enacted punishing austerity measures to service the debt, despite a stubbornly depressed economy and poverty rates near 50 percent. Now, after defaulting on smaller loans, it’s likely that much of the $957 million due January 1 will go unpaid, bringing more chaos and suffering at the hands of Puerto Rico’s creditors.

.....Puerto Rico is just the latest battlefield for a phalanx of hedge funds called “vultures” ......

snip


Though Puerto Ricans pay the same payroll taxes as mainland workers, the island receives sharply lower reimbursement rates for Medicare and Medicaid.

Its poorest citizens are ineligible for the Earned Income Tax Credit.

snip

As unemployment soared and the economy crashed.....Wall Street asset managers and investors egged them on, because Puerto Rican municipal bonds are free from federal, state, and local taxes. Usually Americans must reside in the state whose bonds they purchase to get “triple tax-exempt” status. But anyone from Arizona to Maine can buy triple tax-exempt Puerto Rican bonds.

snip

To pay back the debt, Puerto Rico has delayed tax refunds and payments to suppliers, cut back on health care and public transportation services, fired 30,000 public-sector workers, closed 100 schools, increased the sales tax by more than 50 percent, and even forced community credit unions to take IOUs in exchange for cash.

..... The poverty rate on the island is around 45 percent, and only 40 percent of the labor force has a job. Trapped in an economic death spiral, the tax base has eroded, amid massive out-migration to the U.S.: Puerto Rico has lost 300,000 citizens since 2006......

snip

This was when “vulture” hedge funds like Fir Tree Partners and Appaloosa Management and Och-Ziff made their move. ..... “They see Puerto Rico as an opportunity for huge earnings.....

Hedge funds also became the sole investors willing to lend to the commonwealth, making up nearly all the participants in the 2014 sale of $3.5 billion in low-rated, 8.7 percent general obligation bonds, the biggest U.S. municipal junk bond sale in history. Hedge funds were prepared to lend even more to Puerto Rico in the summer of 2015, until the governor warned about inability to pay. But vulture funds DoubleLine Capital and Avenue Capital were still buying up discounted debt as recently as November. Jeffrey Gundlach of DoubleLine recently called Puerto Rican debt his “best idea” for investors.

snip

Mutual funds like Franklin Templeton and Oppenheimer, which together own $10.8 billion in Puerto Rican debt, bought the bonds at 100 percent and want to limit any losses, whereas vulture funds with discounted debt have more wiggle room to extract profits....

IN AN OCTOBER HEARING, Senator Bernie Sanders addressed a more obscure option for Puerto Rico. “I’ve heard that some of the debt was incurred in an unconstitutional way,” Sanders noted, echoing a sentiment for nullifying some debt that has been proposed by academics and a handful of Puerto Rican lawmakers. This may sound far-fetched, but it rests on solid constitutional ground.

http://prospect.org/article/how-hedge-funds-are-pillaging-puerto-rico

The vultures have deep political ties, amplifying their voice in Washington. Most hedge fund managers are major donors to both parties. .... Chelsea Clinton worked previously at Avenue Capital, which recently walked away from negotiations.

Avenue Capital and the Clintons: A Two-Way Street
By Dealbook November 3, 2006 3:57 pm November 3, 2006 3:57 pm
Chelsea Clinton

Fresh off selling a stake to investment bank Morgan Stanley for about $300 million, Avenue Capital Group has linked up with another powerful name. The hedge fund, which has about $10.5 billion in assets, has added Chelsea Clinton as its newest employee, the New York Daily News reported Friday, citing unnamed sources.

Ms. Clinton is no stranger to finance, having served as a consultant at McKinsey & Company for several years. And the hedge fund, run by Marc Lasry, is no stranger to the Clintons. Avenue co-founders Mr. Lasry and Sonia Gardner are major Democratic Party donors who have each given extensively to Hillary Rodham Clinton’s Senate reelection campaign.

The younger Ms. Clinton is not the first in her family to enter the world of high finance: Her father serves as an adviser to billionaire Ron Burkle’s Yucaipa Companies.

http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2006/11/03/avenue-capital-and-the-clintons-a-two-way-street/

 Avenue Capital is one of the vulture funds that owns some Puerto Rico debt, and is currently aligned with Candlewood Investment Group, Fir Tree Partners, and Perry Corp, which have formed what is known as the GDB Ad Hoc Group (BGF is the acronym in Spanish), a coalition of vulture funds that hold bonds issued by Puerto Rico’s Government Development Bank.

http://www.thenation.com/article/is-an-obama-donor-tying-the-presidents-hands-on-puerto-ricos-debt-crisis/

[hill2016]

20. so...

the hedge funds should not have lent money to Puerto Rico?

Or having lent money to Puerto Rico they should not have expected the money back?

Who's going to lend money to Puerto Rico now?

[Demsrule86]

33. This is why pie in the sky people can't govern

They have no plan and talk, talk and talk some more. Bernie is against this ...so what is his plan that Congress would agree to? None of you live in the real world.

[Demsrule86]

31. Bernie Sanders?

No way. And tell me exactly what is Bern's plan that he can get through Congress to help Puerto Rico...are they supposed to starve while he waits for purity and perfection...and I can tell you the GOP is not going to play...so what is his plan...what would he do? See this is why Bernie would make a lousy president...he would get nothing done. He has no plan...all he can do is talk.

[JI7]

18. once again, the people of puerto rico OPPOSE independence from the US

THEY have voted on it and oppose it.

this isn't imperialism.

[Scootaloo]

22. The same Congress trying to make them poorer is the congress denying them statehood

Puerto Rico is being used as a cheap place for labor, with minimal rights, rights which congress can just decide to strip as it pleases. They do not have representation in this, as they are not a state. And when the people of Puerto Rico vote in favor of statehood as they did in 2012, that same congress that passes laws to exploit Puerto Rico on basis of its non-state status... bury the bill.

That IS imperialism, JI7. Textbook. The people of Puerto Rico are subject to US laws but do not enjoy the ability to have a say in those laws. They have American Democracy, unless it is inconvenient for congress, then it's simply hand-waved. The United States lays claim there but the people of the territory are very far from being equals to other Americans with regards to their rights, their government, or even their economy as this shows.

[Recursion]

9. What Puerto Rico needs is a weaker dollar

But they probably won't get that any time soon.

[choie]

12. I have really reached the end of my patience

with responses like these. So you think that Puerto Rican workers should suffer because of the horrendous decisions made by politicians and business leaders that led to the destruction of their economy? Clinton supports a disgusting bill that will lower their minimum wage, something she also backed in Haiti, and Sanders is rightfully against it. However your response, because you are a Clinton supporter, alleges that Sanders wants to boot Puerto Rico out of the U.S.???? Unfucking believable. You will excuse anything that Clinton does, even when it hurts workers. It is nausea inducing.

[KingFlorez]

15. This isn't about Clinton, it's about Sanders pushing independence

http://money.cnn.com/2016/05/16/investing/bernie-sanders-puerto-rico/ Making it seem as if Puerto Rico is a colony and the US is occupying it is divisive. An independent Puerto Rico would not be viable and make the situation even worse. Another bill could be proposed, but independence is not the answer. Sanders just doesn't know what he is talking about.

[choie]

17. The post is about the goddamn proposal to

lower the minimum wage and who supports and doesn't support it. Not independence. Cut the bullshit and anti-Bernie propaganda! You can't face who Clinton really is. It's sickening and shows a lack of integrity.

[amborin]

25. yes, thank you!

[Rybak187]

19. To me, the article sounds like he wants them to vote

On whether they want to be independent, become a state, or enhance their rights as a territory:

Sanders says he would give the island's 3.5 million residents three options: becoming the 51st U.S. state, becoming an independent country or enhancing its rights as a U.S. territory.

[choie]

28. Reading is fundamental...

[Txbluedog]

16. If PR was a state

Wouldn't the federal min wage apply there as well

[cali]

27. +1

[Demsrule86]

32. So what is your plan

and Bernies? Keep in mind, we have a GOP Congress that gets final approval...so tell us your great solution.

[DebDoo]

35. We can start with not cutting their minimum wage down to $4.25 an hour

[choie]

37. You said it, DebDoo!!!

[HooptieWagon]

34. Clinton supporters applaud slashing wages, cutting benefits,...

...and anything to drive the poor deeper into debt and misery. It's the same thing as Republican trickle-down neoliberal economics where the wealthy are entitled and the poor are punished. IMO it's some sick fucks that believe that bullshit, as it's been proven repeatedly over 45 years not to work.

[Scootaloo]

21. Actually he was talking self-determination

And that whether the island wanted independence or statehood, he's got their back. And yes. America IS practicing colonialism, as this bill shows. If you're unaware of how colonialism works, I suggest picking up a book or two before coming here to wring your hands.

[Ash_F]

23. I have friends from Puerto Rico. $4 per hour is not ok.

[MisterP]

24. like Haiti and Honduras!

[bjo59]

26. That bill sounds like a bill that would be foisted by the banks onto Greece, doesn't it?

Austerity is the name of the game and I am not at all surprised that Clinton supports it. This is what the global financiers have in mind for any country that guarantees wages with which a worker might still be able to scrape by on. The princely sum of $7.25 an hour comes out to a yearly "salary" of $13,920, by the way. Even the "colossal" wage of $15 an hour comes out to a yearly income of $28,800. Way, way too much for a person, or a family of 4, to live on, by god!!! Under pressure, Clinton suggests $12 an hour minimum wage in the 50 states ($23,040 a year) but clearly $4.25 an hour ($8,160 a year) is even better! Who needs colonialism when debt works so frickin' well? If people in the US think they're going to avoid this form of austerity, they might want to think again.

[DebDoo]

36. I'd be very interested in hearing clinton's justification of this cut to the people of PR