Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory acquired in the Spanish-American War, owes $73 billion and is set to run out of cash by September, according to a report issued Thursday by its Government Development Bank. That should be no surprise. The island’s government, which runs a rickety welfare state with excessive spending, has been borrowing like crazy.

Debt has ballooned so much that tiny Puerto Rico, with a population of just 3.7 million, would — if it were a state — rank third behind California and New York as America’s largest borrower.