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Presidential Issues: Finance & Banking

Finance & Banking

View all Articles by Sean Parnell

Puerto Rico Has Already Been ‘Berned’ By Sanders’ Policies

June 1, 2016

By Ojel L. Rodriguez Burgos

Puerto Rico is “feeling the Bern” but it looks like nobody told the Vermont senator.

Bernie Sanders visited the Island recently touting his progressive policies—the same ones that led to Puerto Rico’s current debt crisis.

Sanders claims he “understands that Puerto Rico’s unsustainable debt has everything to do with the policies of austerity and the greed of large financial institutions.” But a realistic look points to the Island’s mismanagement of public finances. From fiscal year 2000 to 2013, the general fund budget spending averaged a deficit of $1.6 billion*—just one example of thoughtless government spending.

Yet more spending is exactly what Sanders thinks Puerto Rico should be doing to jumpstart its economy. He must have forgotten the Island has already tried that. The Puerto Rico Highway and Transportation Company embarked on capital spending projects such as the urban train. Now the government imposed a moratorium on its debt service payments.

Read the full article at Forbes.com: Puerto Rico Has Already Been 'Berned' By Sanders' Policies

Issue Categories : Bernie Sanders, Finance & Banking