And the financial hits just keep on coming… Because you can only live in a fiscal reality-free zone for so long ~ Puerto Rico’s Financial Crisis Is U.S.’ Crisis, Too

With the financial world transfixed by Greece’s debt-driven meltdown, Puerto Rico announces it can’t pay its $73 billion in debt. Once again, we’re learning that welfare statism is no replacement for fiscal responsibility […]
 
… a report on Monday, co-authored by former International Monetary Fund No. 2 Anne Krueger, revealed the island’s finances are a shambles.
 
The devastating analysis noted that some 150 agencies ran up deficits that couldn’t even be accurately counted, so the true indebtedness might be even higher — as much as $100 billion by some estimates.
 
The government has funneled public money to state-owned enterprises that are supposed to be financially independent. Worse, the report said, many workers no longer even look for jobs, since welfare benefits pay more than actual work.

 
 
In the above photo, Puerto Ricans watch a televised broadcast as Governor Alejandro Garcia Padilla addresses the island’s residents regarding the government’s $73 billion debt. The governor said that the people on the island will have to sacrifice and share in the responsibilities for pulling the island out of debt.

 
According to Fausta, the gov is being more than a little disingenuous ~ It is not in García Padilla’s interest to improve the economy ~

García Padilla’s administration relies heavily on a large bureaucracy, and he knows his predecessor was voted out of office for trying to reduce it. Estimates show that the government of Puerto Rico has 160,000 employees too many. That’s enough of a voter base to keep him in office.
 
If the U.S. refills the ATM, García Padilla will claim credit for it; if the U.S. doesn’t, he has someone to blame.
 
And don’t forget that García Padilla and other commonwealth supporters lost miserably during the last plebiscite, when statehood won by approx. 60%. For as long as Puerto Rico remains in a financial swamp, García Padilla knows the question of statehood will be dismissed with “And They Want to Be a State?”
(Or as Ed Koch put it, “The People have spoken … and they must be punished.”)

Sounds awfully familiar doesn’t it? Fiscally irresponsible, power-hungry politicians; eventually they run out of other people’s money.
Hold on to your shorts peeps.

 
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Related:
Puerto Rico: Countdown to the Greecespot