In today's episode I'll be discussing recent events that highlight how
President Trump not only doesn't care about Puerto Rico's development and
ultimate recovery, he actively opposes it.
My name is Andrew Mercado-Vázquez
you can actually listen to on Patreon, Google Play, iTunes and other platforms.
Now, as I mentioned at the beginning what we're going to be talking about is
recent events that have highlighted how it is that the Trump administration has
become a obstacle in Puerto Rico's development.
Now, the first article we're going to be discussing comes from the Washington Post.
It was published on January 16th and it was written by Tracy Jan, Arelis Hernández,
Josh Dawsey and Damian Paletta.
Now, the title is the following.
Now, you read that title and you think this has nothing to do with Puerto Rico, but it does.
Who is this top HUD official? It's actually none other than
Deputy Secretary Pan Patenaude. She was second-in-command at
the agency led by Ben Carson and was widely regarded as that agency's most
capable political leader. This is a person that has knowledge about her
agency, knows how this agency works and can speak with authority about about it.
Later down the article they talk about different instances that actually led
this person to depart the administration. But in particular to the
Puerto Rico issue they talked about the following and I'm gonna quote.
Now what is was this "concern" from Trump's part?
The article talks about that as well, I'm gonna quote.
"He" being, of course, Donald Trump.
Essentially what this all means is that Donald Trump was worried. What was he worried about?
That when the money that Congress had appropriated for Puerto Rico would
arrive to Puerto Rico, that government officials and other people, apparently, would misuse it.
Okay. You could say that that concern is valid.
Maybe.
But it becomes baseless once we consider the following, and I'm going to quote again from the article.
That's why it becomes baseless. That's why it can't be
just a "concern" from from President Trump. Because you have a HUD
official - second-in-command, not just anybody - telling you that this agency is able to completely
oversee and make sure that the money is used correctly. You don't even have to
trust the people that are gonna receive the money anymore because
your own administration is gonna be able to oversee it. So it becomes baseless, it
becomes empty. That seems to be just a facade that's constructed because of other motivations.
Now, what would these other motivations be?
That question is addressed in a Vox article that was
actually published the next day, January 17th. It's written by Matthew Yglesias (Yglesias with a Y).
This article is properly titled. It's the following.
THAT'S the right way of describing this particular situation.
The article basically talks about the Washington Post article and provides
the same general information. But towards the end the author does some some
reflecting, and I think this type of thought is very important to
highlight, and I'm gonna quote from the article directly.
So what exactly are we looking at here?
In this first example ,what we're looking at is a President that sees Congress
acting in a way favorable to Puerto Rico...and actively stands in its way.
And let's not forget the history that this administration has and the way that
it behaves towards certain segments of society. This author seems to feed from
that when he highlights the possibility that the President and his
administration is behaving, not from a place of general concern but rather from
a place of bigotry, a place of ignorance, a place of racism, or or both.
That's just the first example. The second example comes a little bit more recently.
Actually I think it was during the same time, more or less.
It's highlighted in an article from a local news outlet called El Nuevo Día.
It's an article titled"Trump attempts to block funds for Puerto Rico again" and it's
written by José A. Delgado Robles. This is an interesting article it's talking
about something new that happened. And I'm gonna go ahead and quote from it.
"Emergency nutrition assistance."
We're talking about money that goes to people so they can feed themselves.
The administration - Trump's administration - is opposing this. Why exactly are they
opposing this? Article talks about that as well, I'm gonna go ahead and quote again.
So, money for people to be able to feed themselves "is unnecessary and excessive."
We need to ask ourselves: would this be the same narrative if we
were talking about people that weren't in Puerto Rico, but some some segments of
society or people that lived within one of the 50 states?
We can ask ourselves that question as we read on. I'm gonna quote again.
There's there's the motive. The Trump administration is using
the $600 million dollars that should be
intended for people in Puerto Rico be able to feed themselves as a
playing chip in this push-and-pull that the administration has. We're gonna
go ahead and read one more time from the article, the following and I quote.
And he's talking about beneficiaries from this
nutritional assistance program. So, we're not talking about people getting rich.
We're not talking about people receiving loads of money. These are people that
just receive what's needed in order to buy what they need to survive, to subsist.
We're talking about a situation where the President of the United States first tries to block
Congress itself in appropriating money for disaster relief for Puerto Rico.
And then that same President comes in
and tries to block any effort in regards to Puerto Rico's ultimate development.
Which includes allowing people to receive a little bit more in order to
buy a little bit more food. Because what they receive currently on average is $135 per month.
And these are people in need.
What are we looking at here? We're looking at a series of current events
that basically highlight what we've always thought here at Puerto Rico Forward
and PRF Review. We're dealing with an administration that looks
at the Puerto Rico issue and not only does it ignore it, not only does it just
set it aside and pretend it doesn't exist like other presidents and other
administrations have done, and other congressional bodies have done - both
Republican and Democrat - but we're also seeing something a little bit more egregious.
We're looking at something different.
This administration is trying to prevent Puerto Rico from getting ahead.
It's trying to prevent Puerto Rico from developing and to ultimately recover from a natural disaster.
And that is...
...that's horrible.
Well that's going to be it for today's episode.
As always, thank you for time, thank you for listening, y que viva Puerto Rico.