Puerto Rico's new budget is a testament to how bad things are on the island.



Puerto Rico’s governor submitted a revised fiscal plan Thursday that estimates the U.S. Caribbean territory’s economy will shrink by 11 percent and its population drop by nearly 8 percent next year.

The proposal doesn’t set aside any money to pay creditors in the next five years as the island struggles to restructure a portion of its $73 billion public debt.

That's an economic catastrophe written large.

Over a third of the island still has no power, 120 days after the hurricane.

The murder rate has doubled.

And yet things will likely get much worse before getting better.



Even worse, experts say, many Puerto Ricans stopped making payments on their mortgages after the Sept. 20 storm because they thought the moratorium was automatic, when it was not. The storm knocked out power across the island, the largest blackout in U.S. history, preventing many from learning that they had to contact their bank to request a moratorium, said Ariadna Godreau, a professor and human rights lawyer.

"The big concern now is that mortgage foreclosures are going to spike," she said. "We're going to see more homeless people, more homes foreclosed."

...Oriental said only that 69 percent of its home loans were under moratorium by the end of November, while First Bank said about half of its clients were given moratoriums. Santander said 123,000 of its accounts, including both mortgages and personal and commercial loans, received moratoriums expiring in December and January.

..."There are still people without power, so the ability to generate revenue is not there."

More than 30,000 jobs were lost after Hurricane Maria, and some 30 percent of small and medium-size businesses remain closed more than four months after the storm, according to the island's Treasury Department. Meanwhile, more than 30 percent of power customers remain in the dark and many struggle to pay rising utility bills.

Imagine, after all this, a wave of foreclosures.

That's truly kicking someone when they are down.

No, wait. THIS is kicking someone when they are down.



Some analysts view the assumption of that much aid as risky given that the U.S. Treasury Department and U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency recently told Puerto Rico officials that they are temporarily withholding billions of dollars approved by Congress last year for post-hurricane recovery because they believe the island currently has sufficient funds.

“I think counting on $30 billion is overreaching,” Puerto Rico economist Jose Caraballo said in a phone interview. “There’s great uncertainty in that sense, and especially with a Republican government that cares little to nothing about what is happening in Puerto Rico.”

So Puerto Rico is too rich for aid. Just like Iraq was going to pay for it's own occupation.

What's more "aid" is a relative term with the Trump Administration.



When Congress passed a $36.5 billion disaster relief bill to bolster rebuilding efforts in several wildfire and hurricane-damaged areas in October, it shortchanged Puerto Rico, giving it a $4.9 billion loan instead of the grant that other areas received. Now, it appears the debt- and hurricane-ravaged island won’t even get that money.

...the very fact that Puerto Rico must receive assistance as loans rather than grants, unlike any other entity receiving disaster assistance, is bad enough. That the island is being treated like a welfare recipient found to have too much money in its bank account takes it to another level. Among U.S. territories suffering from catastrophe, only Puerto Rico is being means-tested.

When it comes to Republicans, poverty is a crime that must be punished.

That applies to individuals and territories.