Trump Administration: Puerto Rico Has Enough Money and Doesn't Need More Aid
Hurricane Maria ravaged Puerto Rico four months ago, and recovery has been slow. Power is still out in large swaths of the island, affecting over a million people, and some rural areas may not have power restored until the 2018 hurricane season. Infrastructure, industry, and agriculture have all been devastated. But according to the Trump administration, Puerto Rico is fine. Or at least, Puerto Rico is well off that the administration is deliberately withholding aid. The Intercept breaks it down:
First reported in El Nuevo Dia, Puerto Rico’s daily newspaper, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Treasury Department informed the Puerto Rican government on January 9 that they will not disburse the loan through the Community Disaster Loans Program, after finding that Puerto Rico had a cash balance on December 29 of last year of $1.7 billion for ongoing operations. The letter also cited $6.875 billion scattered in various local government accounts. Since the loan was intended to fill in a gap in day-to-day funding, FEMA determined Puerto Rico does not need the money at this time.
The Treasury Department and FEMA announced that they would release the funds when Puerto Rico's cash balance drops to a certain point, though they wouldn't say what that point is. But until then, the federal government has decided that a U.S. territory, where almost half the citizens are without power, doesn't yet deserve the loan it's been promised.
That's another important distinction. Unlike Texas and Florida after their respective hurricanes, the federal government is insisting that Puerto Rico must pay back the aid money it receives. So when the Trump administration finally deigns to fork over money so that American citizens can have power and running water again, they'll only do so as a loan, forcing the already debt-saddled Puerto Rican government to pay reimbursements that aren't being demanded of any other American territories.
This is the same approach that conservatives have taken for years with welfare and social programs: make it as punishing as possible to participate in them and try to drown applicants in arbitrary and draconian red tape. Now they've take the same logic and applied it to disaster relief. And with no senators or representatives in Congress, Puerto Ricans have no one at the federal level invested in advocating for them.
And of course, Puerto Rico has no friends in this White House. It's reported that Trump meant for his "shithole" comments to play well for his base, and if the president thinks that way behind closed doors, it's always possible that he believes that actually helping Puerto Rico would undercut his credibility with white nationalists. It's also just possible he still doesn't know that Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens. Regardless, it seems clear that the U.S. government has no intention of giving Puerto Rico aid if they can't get it all back or make a quick buck.
