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[Page S2753]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
Puerto Rico
Madam President, on Puerto Rico, last night President Trump held his
first Florida rally of the year in Panama City, in the heart of the
Florida Panhandle, which was so awfully devastated by Hurricane Michael
last year. President Trump's speech contained all the usual demagoguery
and bloviating, but one thing in particular stuck in his craw. The
President used his rally in Florida to denigrate once again the island
of Puerto Rico, to repeat falsehoods about how much aid it has
received, and to pit one American against another, which seems to be
his MO.
Again, the President said that Puerto Rico has gotten $91 billion of
disaster aid--flat-out false. They received a hair over $11 billion.
Mr. President, ask your budget people how many dollars Puerto Rico
has received, and they will not tell you the $91 billion falsehood you
have repeated over and over.
Again, I saw the President pit Americans against each other, going so
far as to hold up a flimsy graphic to get Floridians in his audience to
turn against Americans in Puerto Rico. At a time when we need unity, at
a time when we should be together, with all the threats challenging
us--domestic and foreign and all the other types of challenges--all the
President can do is to appeal to people's worst instincts and divide
us. We are humans. We are made by God. We have good and bad in each of
us. The President should be appealing to the good side, not the bad
side, but all he does is the bad side. It is a shame.
Of course, he said that Puerto Ricans should be grateful for whatever
disaster aid they have received, as a pretext for not doing more. Does
he say that to the people of Florida: You shouldn't get any more aid
because you received some already and you should be grateful. Of course
not, it is a double standard. President Trump ought to be ashamed of
himself for condescending to and publicly mocking a community that is
still suffering. These are men, women, and children. They still don't
have their homes, their hospitals, their schools. They can't go on with
life, and he is mocking them? What did they do wrong? They are American
citizens. I sometimes cannot believe the depth of cruelty that the
President uses to treat fellow American citizens this way.
The fact remains, we can end the impasse over disaster aid at a
moment's notice. To the people of Florida: All you have to do is tell
your Senators to vote for the full aid package, including aid to Puerto
Rico, and you will get all the aid you need, all the aid that Congress
has allocated. Just do that.
But Republican Senators, after Donald Trump went in and said no more
aid to Puerto Rico, blindly bowed in obeisance. The House will never
pass a bill that doesn't treat Puerto Rico as fairly as it treats the
other States of the Union.
Let's decide now that we are going to help every corner of America
that is hit by disaster, because that is what Americans have always
done.
