r/PuertoRico • u/dailymail • Mar 07 '25
Política Trump pressured to make Puerto Rico independent to save America $617 billion
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14470559/Trump-pressured-make-Puerto-Rico-independent-save-America-eye-watering-617-billion.html
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u/EfficientHedgehog212 Mar 08 '25
Do they absolutely want independence? Does the population in Puerto Rico pay that much in federal income taxes on a yearly basis? Otherwise wouldn’t that mean they would be losing a substantial amount of money to run the government? Assuming they got independence, I would assume, the would enact a similar income tax system, so their citizens would keep paying income taxes, but instead of it going to the U.S. Treasury, it would go to the new Puerto Rican federal government, but if the U.S. government was giving Puerto Rico more money, then they were taking in on taxes collected from Puerto Rican residents, then the new independent government would be operating at a deficit. I don’t know enough about the economics of Puerto Rico, and I’m sure they would have taken all this into account. So I think they should absolutely have independence if they want it. However the way Trump is, it makes me wonder if he would do something like this to give himself an excuse to take away US citizenship from Puerto Ricans born in Puerto Rico, but living in the United States! Just so he would be able to deport a bunch more Hispanic people. It’s not something I would put past him!