commentaries

61% of the popular vote did not go for statehood. 54% voted for a change in status quo, and 61% of those voted for statehood. A true majority was not reached.

There are 3,706,690 American citizens living in Puerto Rico. They have been Americans since the Jones Act of 1917. If Puerto Rico votes for statehood in a clearly defined plebiscite, then Congress should endorse and approve their application. There is no valid reason why not!!! Politics be--whatever. They are Americans!!!!

Great...another wellfare state to support.

Puerto Rico should be allowed to become a state. This is the first time they have voted to do so. They have had citizenship (partial) since 1917. Shouldn't they have the same citizenship that we all enjoy? That way they would be able to do something about the corruption at the top in their country.

Before statehood is granted, all of the business tax incentives, deductions, etc., that Congress has given businesses to locate and do business in PR to keep unemployment reletively low need to be rescinded. There needs to be an even playing field between states. If PR wants to grant state incentives, fine, but federal incentives need to go away. Regarding DC, it was set up as an independent entity to take politics and influence peddlers out of the district. The author obviusly misses the inherant conflict of interest in having the nation's capital achieve statehood. The pandering would be endless.

It's about fairness. If they want to be granted statehood, grant them statehood. And the rationale behind setting up Washington, D.C. as a district rather than a state no longer apply today. The workers in D.C. are divided between those that can afford to live in a surrounding state and commute in, and those who cannot. By all means, let's deny the poor the full rights of citizenship.

rocubummer, are you worried that Tennessee, Mississippi, Arkansas, and the rest of the states taking in more federal tax dollars than they are paying might get less support? Or are you content to think of the people of Puerto Rico as second class citizens, so therefore they need welfare?

Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens, but they can't vote for President. They are subject to the same laws as the rest of us, but can have no say in making those laws because they aren't represented in Congress.

Puerto Rico pays over $3 billion dollars of tax money to the federal government each year, and its citizens pay into (and receive) social security. If it were a state then the citizens would have to pay federal income taxes also. Not exactly what I'd call a "welfare state", rocubummer.

Ranger78, unfortunately D.C. has failed at being an independent entity. Most of the federal employees do not live in D.C., but in Virginia. The pandering and influence peddling is rampant in D.C. regardless of its statehood. The real losers are the people who live in that city. Most are not part of the political process, and are victims of all the issues you've raised. Changing it to a state won't alter how bad the political pandering and influence peddling is, but it will give the citizens of that city a real voice.

In this ballot, people overwhelmingly decided for statehood, with over 61% of the votes cast. Some people have decided to use the blank ballot argument as a method to convince that statehood did not win. This argument is bogus. A blank ballot does not add or subtract to any option. When a Congressman, even though on the floor of the house does not vote on a bill, does the vote get counted to the yeas or the nays? No. If you want to go further, it is as if people did not go to an election. So, since more than 40% of Americans did not go out to vote on the presidential election, can we say Obama lost the election? The blank ballot argument does not hold water. Statehood won by a landslide. Puertoricans value their United States citizenship, and the only way of maintaining that citizenship is through statehood, as stated in the Congressional Research Service report related to HR856: The only way to secure Constitutionally protected citizenship is to complete the process of Constitutional integration so that people born in Puerto Rico also will be born in a State of the Union for purposes of the 14th Amendment. Statehood won. Hands down.

Time for statehood. It's not even close.