“Hey, Pedro, nice to see that Puerto Rico is now willing to extort Florida (et al) because you folks haven’t been able to put a sane budget together for YEARS!”
My immediate thought was “Nice business ya got there – shame if something were to happen to it”. The above was part of an email that I sent back to Pedro Cerame (Communications Director, Federal Affairs Administration, Office of the Governor of Puerto Rico, pcerame@prfaa.pr.gov, (202) 394-1750). You see, he sent out an email blast that the Puerto Rico Governor, Ricardo Rossello, signed. In effect, the message was (my words) “help me persuade the Feds to forestall a cut in Medicaid or 10s of thousands of Puerto Ricans will move to Florida, wrecking your State budget”. And this guy, Pedro, thought that this was a great idea? Here’s the letter (emphasis mine):

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Puerto Rico Governor Rosselló Requests Gov. Scott’s Assistance in Solving Puerto Rico Healthcare Crisis
(March 20th, 2017 – San Juan, Puerto Rico) The Governor of Puerto Rico, Hon. Ricardo A. Rosselló Nevares, has alerted Governor Rick Scott of Florida in a letter, calling his attention to the “rapidly approaching drop in federal healthcare funding for Puerto Rico, known as Medicaid cliff,” which will likely result in a substantial economic impact to the Florida budget. The full text of the letter is attached.
The ¨Medicaid cliff¨ is a scenario caused by funding shortfalls built in to the unique and inequitable healthcare funding mechanisms for Puerto Rico. If realized, tens of thousands of Puerto Ricans, all natural born citizens of the United States, will likely continue to relocate to Florida to qualify for Medicaid, costing Florida taxpayers $2.5 billion over the coming decade.
In the letter, the Governor states,
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