April 28, 2016

THE SUMTER ITEM N.G. Osteen 1843-1936 The Watchman and Southron

THURSDAY, APRIL 28, 2016 H.G. Osteen 1870-1955 Founder, The Item

H.D. Osteen 1904-1987 The Item

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Margaret W. Osteen 1908-1996 The Item Hubert D. Osteen Jr. Chairman & Editor-in-Chief Graham Osteen Co-President Kyle Osteen Co-President Jack Osteen Editor and Publisher Larry Miller CEO Rick Carpenter Managing Editor

20 N. Magnolia St., Sumter, South Carolina 29150 • Founded October 15, 1894

COMMENTARY

What happens in Puerto Rico won’t stay there Immigrant goes to America, Many hellos in America; Nobody knows in America Puerto Rico’s in America!

-- “West Side Story”

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ASHINGTON — Puerto Rico, an awkward legacy of America’s 1898 testosterone spill, the SpanishAmerican War, is about to teach two things that few Americans know: If conditions get bad enough there, its residents, who are American citizens, can come here. And if Congress does not deal carefully with the mess made by the government in San Juan, Congress will find itself rescuing governments in Springfield, Illinois, and other state capitals.

Puerto RiGeorge co’s approxiWill mately 18 debt-issuing entities have debts — approximately $72 billion — they cannot repay. The Government Development Bank might miss a $422 million payment due in May, and the central government might miss a $2 billion payment in July. Congress will not enact a “bailout,” meaning an infusion of U.S. taxpayers’ money.

But some Democrats — perhaps anticipating a day of reckoning for their one-party state of Illinois, and nurturing their indissoluble marriage to government employees unions, some of which have helped reduce Puerto Rico to prostration — want to reward the San Juan government’s self-indulgence. They favor pouring more Medicare, Medicaid and other benefits into the island.

They also favor giving protection of unionized government employees’ pensions priority over payments even to holders of general obligation bonds guaranteed by the territory’s constitution. Although Puerto Rico’s per capita income ($11,331) is about half of that of the poorest state (Mississippi, $20,956), Democrats oppose allowing Puerto Rico to lower the hourly minimum wage.

The U.S. minimum, $7.25, which applies to the island, is two-thirds of the average islander’s wage, which increases unemployment and hence emigration to the mainland. Some Democrats even want the earned income tax credit and child tax credits paid to Puerto Ricans even though they do not file personal federal income tax returns.

Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, may also have his eye on Illinois and other states subjugated by the axis of the Democratic Party and government employees unions. He wants legislation for Puerto Rico to require U.S. state and local governments, almost 60 percent of which last year failed to make full pension contribu-

tions, to honestly state their pension liabilities. Puerto Rico has a $44 billion unfunded pension liability.

The most complex Puerto Rico issue is what treatments should be authorized for various categories of bondholders.

Shed few tears for those who, by buying Puerto Rico’s (or Illinois’) debt, enable the sort of high-spending, vote-buying governance that bankrupted Detroit and soon will have Illinois begging for what does not and should not exist — a bankruptcy option for states.

Puerto Rico’s debts should not be restructured in a way that sets a precedent allowing Illinois to dodge both debts and reforms, particularly reforms pertaining to government employee unions that have contributed to the territory’s dysfunction. The more Puerto Rico is allowed to evade existing legal processes and the need to negotiate with creditors, the more leeway it will have to resist reforms.

Puerto Rico’s political class recoils from a control board exercising federal oversight, which Gov. Alejandro Garcia Padilla calls a “shameful and degrading” measure to deprive the island “of its own government.” But curtailing this class’ discretion might not be seen as a deprivation by the 71 percent of Puerto Ricans who in a recent poll favored an oversight board for a government that is warning about being unable to fuel police cars and fund school services.

The president of the territory’s senate likens federal oversight to “the worst colonial subjugations” and The Washington Post worries about “the legitimate prerogatives of the island’s legislature.” But what are the proper prerogatives of a mendicant legislature avidly seeking maximum leeway to repudiate debts?

Because the island is a U.S. territory, what happens there will not stay there: America needs to prevent, or minimize, a humanitarian crisis, some of which would be exported to America. But ameliorative measures must be made conditional on fiscal, labor and other reforms on the island.

America actually needs to have a salutary crisis in Illinois. It will be salutary because it will be a cautionary example for other states if Illinois suffers, without offloading pain on taxpayers elsewhere, the severe consequences of decades of ruinous choices. And Puerto Rico’s troubles will benefit America if the bond market, sobered by a demonstration that government bonds can be risky, becomes a restraint on state legislatures by raising the cost of borrowing where the legislatures are most irresponsible.

George Will’s email address is georgewill@washpost.com. © 2016, Washington Post Writers Group.

EDITORIAL PAGE POLICIES EDITORIALS represent the views of the owners of this newspaper.

COLUMNS AND COMMENTARY are the personal opinion of the writer whose byline appears. Columns from readers should be typed, double-spaced and no more than 850 words.

Send them to The Item, Opinion Pages, P.O. Box 1677, Sumter, S.C. 29151, or email to hubert@ theitem.com or graham@theitem.com.

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readers of the newspaper. They should be no more than 350 words and sent via e-mail to letters@ theitem.com, dropped off at The Item office, 20 N. Magnolia St. or mailed to The Item, P.O. Box 1677, Sumter, S.C. 29151, along with the full name of the writer, plus an address and telephone number for verification purposes only. Letters that exceed 350 words will be cut accordingly in the print edition, but available in their entirety at www. theitem.com/opinion/letters_to_editor.

NOTABLE & QUOTABLE

No telling what’s next in crazy campaign season

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n “How Trump Killed Reaganism,” William Galston writes, “There have been three GOP revolutions since World War II. No telling what’s next.” Read it online at www.wsj.com: The minute-to-minute coverage of the 2016 presidential primaries threatens to obscure the larger story: While Sen. Bernie Sanders is pressing former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to move further and faster down the progressive road, Donald Trump is waging and winning the third major revolution in the Republican Party since World War II. Enter Donald Trump, who proposes to turn Reaganism on its head.

Sen. Ted Cruz is right: Mr. Trump is no social conservative.

Nor is Mr. Trump an internationalist. He rejects U.S. alliances and commitments as unaffordable burdens, and he regards Russia’s Vladimir Putin as a kindred spirit. He espouses the spirit if not ( yet) the letter of Charles Lindbergh’s motto: America First.

Mr. Trump’s candidacy has showed that the cadre of genuine social conservatives is smaller than long assumed, that grass-roots Republican support for large military commitments in the Middle East has withered, and that the

business community is politically homeless.

So it has come to this: A mercantilist isolationist is the odds-on favorite to win the Republican presidential nomination. Whether or not he goes on to win the general election, the Republican Party cannot return to what it once was. The Reagan era has ended, and what comes next is anyone’s guess.

••• “Morning Joe” Scarborough writes, “Trump’s sweep is another humiliating defeat for media and political elites.” Read it online at www.washingtonpost.com: In his book “Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960-2010,” Charles Murray wrote about the rise of a new American upper class and the “narrow elites” who shape America’s economy, culture and government.

The number of players who dominate the direction of media, politics and finance is surprisingly concentrated for a country as sprawling and diverse as the United States. And yet almost all of these “influencers” across Manhattan and Washington were incapable of blunting Trump’s meteoric rise. Time and again over the past year, Washington insiders and media moguls misread the mood of working-class voters and

their attraction to the populist message championed by Trump.

Murray writes that most members of the narrow elite don’t watch much television. If they watch any news programs, it is probably the PBS NewsHour (or Morning Joe!). Powerful influencers have also watched other television shows over the past decade like “Mad Men,” “House of Cards,” “Breaking Bad,” “Game of Thrones” and “Curb Your Enthusiasm.”

While such critically acclaimed shows are often consumed by narrow elites in frantic fits of binge watching, the other 300 million Americans view television a bit differently. Murray reports that the average American watches about 35 hours of television a week. Since 2004, Trump has starred in 14 seasons of “The Apprentice.” And if you’re a member of the narrow elite that holds sway over media coverage or government policy, chances are good that you saw few episodes of “The Apprentice” or “Survivor.” But millions of Americans did, and perhaps that kind of mass consumption is why Trump will beat Don Draper at the polls every time.

Notable & Quotable is compiled by Graham Osteen.

Contact him at graham@ theitem.com.

LETTER TO THE EDITOR NOT ALL PROGRESS HAS BEEN FOR THE BETTER As a country we have come a long way in the last 50 years or so … and it isn’t all good. I am of the older generation and was drafted during the Vietnam era and joined the Air Force. So where are we today?

1) We can’t approve English as the language of our land.

2) We don’t say prayers in our public schools or sing Christmas songs.

3) Stores do not promote saying Merry Christmas.

4) A President had sex in the Oval Office with a 21-year-old and he was not removed from office.

5) Men (boys) and women (girls) can use the bathroom they desire.

6) Groups object to show-

ing an ID before you vote.

7) Well known sports stars commit serious crimes.

8) Schools promote sex items without the parent’s permission.

9) A teenage girl can get clinical advice for an abortion without her parent’s knowledge.

10) You don’t have to say the Pledge of Allegiance at school.

11) At large events the Star Spangled Banner is played without attendees removing their hats or placing their hands over their hearts.

12) It is okay to stomp on and burn the American flag.

13) Young people take large college loans and support legislation for not paying it back.

14) Drugs are easier to obtain and the number of

deaths due to overdoses has increased.

15) The media and public officials promote cops as the bad guys.

16) You can attack a teacher in the classroom and not be expelled from school.

17) Laws are passed and selectively enforced.

18) Each year fewer and fewer people attend church.

19) The kids get winner trophies and no one comes in second, third or last.

And lastly, on top of all of this, the politicians have borrowed 19 trillion dollars and have no way or plan to pay it back. Sadly, most young people will have a standard of living that will be less than their parents and grandparents.

DON DAMM Sumter