K-12 Tax & Spending Climate: Puerto Rico, with $73 billion in debt, forced toward bankruptcy (20k / Resident)

Thomas Heath and Tory Newmyer:

One building contractor who was owed more than $1 million received two payments from the Government Development Bank for a total of $164,030 — only to see them bounce.

The rescue plan involving the oversight board was fraught with politics as it wound its way through Congress last year. Some politicians used politically charged language to describe the plan.

One group, the Center for Individual Freedom, spent millions on ads calling the Puerto Rico bill a “bailout,” targeting congressional districts. As Jeff Mazzella, the group’s president, sees it, the oversight board’s action “will allow Puerto Rico to rob millions of American retirees and savers who invested in Puerto Rico bonds.”