Don’t cry for me Puerto Rico
The truth is I always used you
All through my campaigns
My fab existence
I kept my millions
Don’t keep your distance

The Evita of American politics, Hillary Clinton, has announced her new economic program for America.  As evidence of her past success in this field, consider the case of Puerto Rico.

Hillary’s co-president (Bill) signed away the tax break Puerto Rico had used for decades to attract manufacturing plants and jobs.

To understand what impact this had on Puerto Rico, we must further consult the economic wisdom of Hillary Clinton.  In October of 2014, Mrs. Clinton said, “Don’t let anybody tell you that, you know, it's corporations and businesses that create jobs.”  Of course, that is not what Mrs. Clinton meant.  (Oracles are sometimes inscrutable.)  First Mrs. Clinton’s staff, and then the oracle herself, explained that she was speaking in shorthand, one of her many languages.  Properly translated, she meant tax breaks for corporations do not create jobs.

Whew!  What a relief.  So getting rid of that tax break in Puerto Rico didn’t have any effect, because tax breaks for corporations do not create jobs.

Except, for some mysterious reason, after the tax break ended, the number of manufacturing jobs on Puerto Rico fell by almost half.

Moving on, Hillary and Bill cranked up the pander machine with clemency for 16 Puerto Rican terrorists, conveniently timed just before Hillary jumped into the New York U.S. Senate race.  With a large Puerto Rican population in New York, Hillary was for it before she was against it.  The cheers had turned to jeers.

Ever nimble as Hillary is, there are always new opportunities, a sort of Ponzi scheme of promises.  Enter Vieques.

The U.S. Navy had a bombing range on Vieques, an island that is part of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, about 8 miles east of the mainland.  In 1999, a civilian employee was killed by a bomb misfired from a Navy jet.  Stopping the Navy’s use of that bombing range became a cause for the same group of people who live in that special Hollywood-Washington, D.C. nexus.  Al Sharpton; Robert Kennedy, Jr.; Edward James Olmos; and many others joined the protest, some traveling to the island to break into the facility for a celebrity arrest.  Hillary, now a New York senator, flew down to Puerto Rico for a day, a gesture of solidarity with the protestors, but did not visit Vieques.

The bombing range was closed…a process started under President Bill Clinton and completed by President George Bush.

With the bombing range closed, the U.S. Navy decided it no longer needed the Naval air station on Puerto Rico and closed that as well.  More jobs out the door.

Fast-forward to the present.  In June of this year, the governor of Puerto Rico announced that the island government faces a debt crisis and will not be able to pay the $72 billion it owes.

Fear not, Puerto Rico: you have a friend in Hillary Clinton.  She announced she supports changing the law to allow Puerto Rico to declare bankruptcy.

Oh, for a world that saw the foolishness of listening to Hillary Clinton.  That is not to be.  In 2008, even though the campaign was really over, Puerto Rican voters gave Hillary 68% of the vote over Barack Obama in the presidential primary.  She was popular there, no doubt still is.

“Don’t cry for me, Puerto Rico; the truth is I always used you” and will again.  All of you.