On Sunday night’s episode of “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver”, the host dedicated a substantial amount of the show to Puerto Rico’s debt crisis and welcomed “Hamilton” star Lin-Manuel Miranda to perform a rap about the situation. He has advocated before Congress, even offering members tickets to the hit show if they would just help his home island. “Paul Ryan, I’ll come sing “Hamilton” at your house”.
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Last month, PIMCO weighed in with a similar post endorsing the Treasury Department’s Puerto Rico proposal.
And Puerto Rico’s governor seems to be listening. “It’s so good, we owe Puerto Rico for that man”.
But lawmakers will not be able to address the island’s fiscal crisis before May 1, when Puerto Rico is due to make a smaller $422 million payment that Governor Alejandro Garcia Padilla says it can not meet, said the California Republican, who is second only to Speaker Paul Ryan in the legislative chamber. “Help Puerto Rico, it’s just 100 miles across!”. Over $80 billion in debt and long suffering from a crisis of manufacturing over the past two decades, Puerto Rico has contributed some of the world’s best-known artists, celebrities and minds. Groups allied with those bondholders have characterized the rescue bill as a “bailout”, even though House Speaker Paul D. Ryan, R-Wisconsin, has vowed not to spend taxpayer dollars to meet Puerto Rico’s debt obligations. “I’ll wear my Hamilton blouse”.
This is not about statehood for Puerto Rico, but legal quirks that devastate the economics for the island.
He left no one untouched who deserved to be trashed for responsibility, including the people who govern the US territory, Congress, and what he called “vulture” funds a/k/a hedge funds, who are finding profit opportunities without concern for the effect on the citizens of the Puerto Rico.
The Senate, meanwhile, has been content to let House leaders take the lead on the Puerto Rico issue, though key senators have expressed reservations about the approach they have taken.
Later, after making his own plea regarding the crisis in the Caribbean territory, Oliver introduced Miranda as already being in the studio.
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Puerto Rico is in this jam partly because of an action Congress took 30 years ago, when it took away Puerto Rico’s right to Chapter Nine bankruptcy protection. Why?
