OPINION:
San Juan Mayor Carmin Yulin Cruz Soto is name-calling, prevaricating and showboating again. Puerto Rico’s media love her, but she’s lying and making liars out of them.
Media have been claiming that President Trump has ended disaster relief to Puerto Rico. This is garbage. However, it is true that after more than a year Mr. Trump would like to see a successful conclusion to the effort. It’s his job to be concerned about how federal money is spent in Puerto Rico. We all should be concerned about it, actually, because allegations of the island’s elected officials lining their pockets at taxpayer expense have surfaced.
How low will Mrs. Cruz Soto go? She’s called President Trump a slob and a jerk. She makes the false claim that Puerto Rican people have a right to FEMA funds because of an insurance policy that is paid on their individual mortgages. That’s nuts. As U.S. citizens, we have a right to expect reasonable financial assistance, but there’s no mortgage insurance policy. However, if a mortgage is owned by two quasi-federal agencies, Freddie Mac or Fannie Mae, Puerto Ricans may qualify for three to 12 months of payment relief with no impact on their credit score. Perhaps that is what has confused her. The big difference is that mortgage relief is targeted directly at an individual homeowner and is not from federal funds that Mrs. Cruz Soto’s ilk could theoretically divert, squander or otherwise lose without an audit trail.
BRUCE R. BAXTER
Rincon, Puerto Rico
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