Jim Martin: “A $164 billion bailout not only hurts taxpayers and adds to our budget deficit, but it squanders a prime opportunity for Puerto Rico to get on sound financial footing.”

(Alexandria, Virginia) – The 60 Plus Association, the nation’s largest center-right senior advocacy organization with over 7.2 million senior supporters nationwide, today opposed former Florida Governor Jeb Bush’s decision to endorse a bailout scheme allowing Puerto Rico to avoid $164 billion dollars in debt at the expense of American taxpayers and seniors.

Said 60 Plus Chairman Jim Martin, “We have a great deal of respect for Jeb Bush, his accomplishments as Governor, his leadership on national issues, and as a public servant working to bring people together, unite us as a nation, and work for bi-partisan solutions on a host of issues. However we could not believe more strongly that a Chapter 9 solution for Puerto Rico is no solution at all, and will be quite damaging to seniors, to taxpayers, and the future of state and municipal financial management.

“There are better ways to address the financial crisis currently gripping Puerto Rico and its people that don’t call on taxpayers to fund yet another bailout that will add to our nation’s mountainous public debt obligation. There are better solutions that will require the leaders of Puerto Rico to finally address long intractable mismanagement problems. We strongly believe these options must be considered first before the words ‘Chapter 9’ are ever mentioned.”

60 Plus has produced a fact-sheet outlining a host of options to address the U.S. territory’s financial maladies, and has been outspoken that a bailout will hurt seniors with pensions invested in Puerto Rican securities.

Concluded Martin, “We have taken the time to lay out the case for a better path than bankruptcy, for the good of the nation, and the good of the millions of seniors we represent. Mr. Bush is a good man who deeply cares about people, there is no doubt. We sincerely hope he reconsiders his position, and instead embraces one of the many more viable, sensible and responsible options available before asking taxpayers for another hundred-billion-dollar bailout.”

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