Puerto Rico Population

3.55 million (2014)

Data from: World Bank

BBC News, November 7th 2012 (puerto-rico-debt-crisis-governmentshutdown-tax-increases-high-unemployment-other-1989116, Our mission, vision, and
values inform the work of the BBC and are how we promote our public purposes. The public purposes are set out
by the Royal Charter and Agreement, the constitutional basis for the BBC. Our mission: To enrich
people's lives with programmes and services that inform, educate and entertain. Our vision: To be the
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the BBC.

A2 BBC BIAS
Former political editor Andrew Marr argued in 2006 that the liberal bias of the BBC is cultural not
political.(8) In 2011, Peter Oborne wrote in his Daily Telegraph blog, "Rather than representing the
nation as a whole, it [the BBC] has become a vital resource and sometimes attack weapon for a
narrow, arrogant Left-Liberal elite".(12)
The commentator Mehdi Hasan in the New Statesman pointed out the right-wing backgrounds of many
BBC presenters and journalists, querying why even many "liberals and leftists" accept the right's
description of BBC bias.(14) Guardian columnist Owen Jones is also of the opinion that the BBC is
biased towards the right owing to numerous key posts being filled by Conservatives.(15)

The BBC highlights on November 7th, 2012, there are now almost a
million more Puerto Ricans in the US than on the island, which the World
Bank shows that Puerto Rico has the population of 3.55 million people.
Supreme Court judge Sonia Sotomayor, singer Jennifer Lopez and the former
jazz musician Tito Puente are all of Puerto Rican descent, though all three
were born in New York. Ties between the island and the mainland are strong
and those on the island considered it inevitable that a full union be
requested. A young voter in the capital San Juan, Jerome Lefebre, said:
"Puerto Rico has to be a state. There is no other option. "We're doing okay,
but we could do better. We would receive more benefits, a lot more financial
help."

The International Business Times writes on June 30th of 2015 that

Officials in San Juan, the capital, are grappling with roughly $72
billion in debt. (an online news publication, comprising seven national

editions and four languages. There has never been a large case of public
bias.

1. Puerto Rico's former secretary of state Kenneth McClintock states that

being a commonwealth is what got Puerto Rico in trouble in the first
place. The federal government should cover infrastructure
improvements and healthcare services for Puerto Ricans at the same
rate it funds such services for other U.S. citizens instead of forcing the
islands lawmakers to govern with insufficient revenue, he said. The
level of debt we have now is because we are not a state, he said.
Probably half of the bonds we issued were because we are not a
state.
We cant say where Puerto Rico is going to be in five years, where is it
going to be next year. We have to get through the next 90 days first,
said Rep. Rafael Tatito Hernandez, chairman of the Puerto Rico
Houses Treasury Committee. A big change is going to have to
happen.
CNN writes on January 26th that Puerto Rico is no longer able to
afford to purchase food for their inmates, or even pay some special
education teachers. Without congressional action, the condition of
Puerto Rico will be unpredictable for the future.
Puerto Rico can no longer pay off its debts and this potential financial
collapse has seen threats made to raise taxes even more as its
impoverished population already suffers from high unemployment. If
creditors refuse to renegotiate the terms of Puerto Ricos debts, San
Juan could run out of cash in a matter of weeks, triggering a
government shutdown.
If this shutdown is to occur, it can take weeks or months for Puerto
Rico to recover. People are beginning to leave the country to travel into
the U.S in an attempt to get some form of education, government
loans are being defaulted on, while Puerto Rico is beginning to be
unable to pay for education costs now as well.
It is estimated that the U.S had taken at least a $24 billion hit from a 16-day
shutdown. The financial ratings agency Standard & Poor's on October
17th of 2013 said the shutdown "to date has taken $24 billion out of the
economy," equaling $1.5 billion dollars a day and "shaved at least 0.6
percent off annualized fourth-quarter 2013 GDP growth." These estimates are
for the overall economy, taking into account not just federal wages and
productivity, but all the ripple effects and costs as well. The costs to Puerto
Ricos economy may not be as large on a global scale, but for them itll be
devastating.

2. Puerto Ricos healthcare system is also in danger of collapse due to

this debt crisis. The islands cash flow problem means it cant pay for
its share of Medicare and Medicaid, federal insurance programs that
help seniors and low-income families. At the same time, the island is
battling an ongoing departure of healthcare workers, who are leaving
for the United States, where Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement (to
make repayment to for expense or loss incurred) rates are much higher. Roughly 2
million Puerto Ricans, or 60 percent of its population, rely on Medicare,
Medicare Advantage or Medicaid to cover their healthcare costs.
Hundreds of doctors reportedly move from Puerto Rico every year.
The people are facing a brutal economic stress, said Victor Ramos,
president of the Puerto Rico College of Physicians and Surgeons. The
reality is that if this doesnt get fixed, the healthcare system of Puerto
Rico is going to collapse within a few months. The doctors will continue
to leave and the hospitals wont have staff.
Without healthcare and with hospitals shutting down, disease is likely
to become more of an issue in Puerto Rico due to a lack of affordable
medication, doctors visits, and staff to treat current patients. Diseases
such as the Zika Virus, which the CDC has at Stage 2 in Puerto Rico,
meaning that precautions to protect against it are being strongly urged
and check-ups are recommended to those who may be suspected of
having the virus, will be able to go unmonitored and halt any progress
made on the island for further treatment of large infectious diseases,
and even mere check-ups will become hard and expensive to come by.
Granting Puerto Rico statehood will give them the structured system
and Chapter 9 capabilities like other states have to manage their debt.
The debt crisis only gets worse and worse as we do nothing, as Puerto
Rico loses more of its potential tax base for every person that leaves
the territory.