ASSEMBLYMAN CRESPO ON CUBA AND GUN VIOLENCE

CRESPO TO OBAMA: ON YOUR TRIP TO CUBA PLEASE DON’T FORGET ABOUT PUERTO RICO

AND ITS HEALTH CARE AND FINANCIAL CRISIS

    Assemblyman Marcos Crespo, Chair of the Assembly Puerto Rican/Hispanic Task Force, released the following statement on President Barack Obama’s visit to the Republic of Cuba.

“As President Barack Obama visits the Republic of Cuba and becomes only the second U.S. President to do so, I would like to temper the historic nature of this visit with the harsh reality being faced by 3.5 million American citizens 761 miles from Havana.

Normalizing relations with Cuba is consistent with American values of promoting democracy and protecting human freedoms.  As part of President Obama’s significant foreign policy accomplishments, normalizing relationship with Cuba after decades of an antagonistic relationship is a milestone of progress for both our nations.

However, normalizing the economy of Puerto Rico should not take a back seat to any other effort taking place in the Caribbean.

Puerto Rico is drowning figuratively and literally under unmanageable debt and an imposed federal healthcare reimbursement formula which has created havoc in the island’s health care system. 

Both its $72 billion dollar debt, which is now in default, and the pending collapse of hospitals and clinics which are threating the health of the 3.5 million Americans on the island are crisis which the President should continue to highlight, work to resolve and prompt Congress to act accordingly.

The President, in his proposed federal budget for Fiscal Year 2017, has included the need for Puerto Rico to reorganize its debt via Chapter 9 bankruptcy protection and has targeted $30 billion over the next decade to help stabilize and secure the islands health care system.  I applaud these efforts and ask that the President continue to pressure Congress to act on these matters.

As President Obama visits the Republic of Cuba, It is my greatest hope that he will revisit Puerto Rico so that he can, on a first-hand basis, ascertain the deterioration of the economy and health care system of the island since his last visit in June of 2011.”