Dick Thornburgh Quotes About Puerto Rico

• If Congress does its job in this regard, the residents of Puerto Rico will be empowered to act in their own self-interest and express their future political status aspirations accordingly.

  Dick Thornburgh

  Jobs, Self, Empowering

• That is why, with optimism instead of fear, all those who want to see Puerto Rico's status resolved should seek the truth about each option, including the upside and the downside of each.

  Dick Thornburgh

  Optimism, Want, Should

• Yet, individuals and corporations in Puerto Rico pay no federal income tax.

  Dick Thornburgh

  Income, Pay, Corporations

• However, the sovereignty of the states is constitutionally defined and recognized, while the powers of the local government in Puerto Rico are defined by, and subject to alteration under, federal statutory law.

  Dick Thornburgh

  Government, Law, States

• Now that the there is a path for the people of Puerto Rico to express their self-determination on Puerto Rico's political status, there are some who seek to block that path.

  Dick Thornburgh

  Determination, Block, Self

• Yet, Puerto Ricos economic convergence and political integration with the rest of the nation is in a state of arrest - even though the island has been within the national borders, political system and customs territory of the U.S. for a century.

  Dick Thornburgh

  Islands, Political, Borders

• Federal program and services outlay in Puerto Rico is approximately $10 billion per year.

  Dick Thornburgh

  Years, Program, Puerto Rico

• If U.S. national sovereignty continues, it is only as a state that Puerto Rico will have permanent 10th Amendment powers over its non-federal affairs, as well as voting power in Congress.

  Dick Thornburgh

  Voting, Affair, Amendments

• Internal self-government under a local constitution was authorized by Congress and approved by the residents in 1952, but federal law is supreme in Puerto Rico and residents do not have voting representation in the Congress.

  Dick Thornburgh

  Government, Self, Law

• In historical and constitutional terms, the recent political status vote in Puerto Rico was a necessary but obviously not decisive step on the road of self-determination leading to full self-government.

  Dick Thornburgh

  Determination, Government, Self

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