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News Thursday, Apr 30 2015

It's Not Just Immigration and Common Core: NRO Hits Jeb on Puerto Rican Statehood

Jeb spent part of his trip to Puerto Rico reminiscing about drinking rum, but he's looking punch-drunk after adding two more positions to his growing list of problems with the Republican base. First, the editors of the National Review took him to task today for supporting Puerto Rican statehood:

If Puerto Rico became a state, its economy and culture would be incredible outliers: It is twice as poor as the poorest of the 50 states, and it would of course be the first Spanish-speaking one. Statehood would remove some of the competitive benefits the island currently enjoys — protection of the United States and its laws without paying income taxes, for instance — in exchange for an inordinately generous welfare state. (One important economic policy exported from the mainland, the federal minimum wage, is believed to have had devastating effects.) The territory is currently stuck in a deep economic malaise, driving large numbers of residents to emigrate, but what it needs is structural reform, not statehood. So what is Governor Bush thinking? In Washington, the issue has long been more of a Democratic cause — the state would be reliably blue — but some Republicans have warmed to the idea on political grounds, too, thinking it will win over Hispanic voters, especially the growing population of Puerto Ricans in Florida. Bush surely believes what he said (his brother was sympathetic, too), but if this is a political ploy, it’s an unwise one.

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