Ryan says he wants “responsible solution” on Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico’s bond prices tumbled this year as Garcia Padilla said the government would need to restructure its debts, and some investors expressed skepticism that a USA lifeline will be sufficient to stave off a major default.

“The political sector in Puerto Rico has caused an extremely polarized environment, and that hurts us a lot as a country”, Bernier said, adding that he plans to release a platform next week for how to address Puerto Rico’s economic crisis. There are serious concerns that the island may default on January 1, when more than $900 million comes due (including over $350 million the Puerto Rican government is constitutionally obligated to pay). It only narrowly managed to make a $350 million payment on December 1. Puerto Rico’s Public Finance Corporation already missed a $58 million bond payment in August. He also repeated the administration’s view that reforms to Puerto Rico’s Medicaid system should be put in place to help relieve budgetary pressures and again called on lawmakers to make the island’s residents eligible for the Earned-Income Tax Credit for low- and moderate-income individuals. He made the comments during a trip to Washington to meet with Republican legislators and others before a vote by Congress that might include a provision giving Puerto Rico public agencies access to Chapter 9 bankruptcy provisions.

Republicans have opposed allowing Puerto Rico to declare bankruptcy as a way to help mitigate their $72 billion government debt.

“We can now begin the process of improving basic bookkeeping in the territory and end the opacity and lack of transparency in their finances”, Hatch said in a statement.

“Hedge funds prove that they were more persuasive than fairness for Puerto Rico”, Garcia said. “I’m always doing my best to do both things”, Garcia Padilla said, according to a Reuters transcript.

Grappling with a long-struggling economy and a massive amount of debt, Puerto Rican officials have said the island will be unable to pay back all the money it owes to creditors.

“Five million Puerto Ricans who live on the mainland are watching”, she said.

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