White House spokesman Sean Spicer on Thursday rejected a Democratic proposal to rescue Puerto Rico from a possible default on its debt in the near future, by including language in the spending bill that has to be passed by Friday.
President Trump said Thursday morning on Twitter that Democrats are seeking to “bail out” Puerto Rico as part of the spending bill, but said, “No!” Spicer agreed in the daily White House briefing that the goal now should be to keep the government open, and not stall the process by adding complicated language on Puerto Rico.
“The president’s tweet and the president’s discussion revolves around the continuing resolution to fund our government,” Spicer said. “There needs to be a continuing resolution effective this Friday.”
“The Democrats at the last minute have come in and thrown a lot of monkey wrenches into the ability of this to get done, despite the president doing everything that he can to show good faith to keep this going,” he added.
“They keep moving the goalpost, and the issue right now is to make sure that we do what’s in the best interest of this country and our people by keeping the government open,” Spicer said.
He added that adding Puerto Rico language is probably not the “most effective way” to deal with the problem, and said there would be other ways to deal with the issue down the road.
Puerto Rico holds more than $70 billion in debt, and failed last summer to make a $2 billion payment. In response, Congress passed legislation that created a panel that was designed to create growth on the island territory, but that step hasn’t removed the possibility of a debt crisis there.
In March, the oversight panel imposed a plan that many worried would force Puerto Rico’s creditors to take on huge losses.
