Conservatives who call legislation that would let Puerto Rico restructure its debt a “bailout” are only hastening the need for an actual bailout, an Obama administration official charged on Wednesday.
“And the irony is that the more success that those Republicans have in gumming up the works, the more likely it is that the only alternative for dealing with Puerto Rico will be a bailout, and that’s something that we all want to avoid,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest said.
“We’re going to continue to support and try to nurture that process to yield a piece of legislation that would address the many challenges facing Puerto Rico,” Earnest said.
But “there has been an unhelpful effort on the part of some Republicans to gum up the works here, including by lobbing false charges, suggesting that somehow this is a bailout of Puerto Rico,” Earnest charged. “It’s not. And that’s why we’ve been urging Congress to act in bipartisan fashion to pass this bill.”
