Medical supply shortage because Trump screws up Puerto Rico recovery

This medical supply shortage isn't all Trump's fault. We used to have tax incentives to encourage companies to operate in Puerto Rico. So a lot of these medical manufacturers moved there to get the cheaper labor and a good tax environment instead of offshoring to Mexico or Thailand or whatever. Than Bill Clinton signed a law to change their tax status so that PR facilities get taxed like foreign subsidiaries in Mexico or Thailand. But PR carved out tax breaks of their own for these companies, and since they were already invested and it was otherwise a good environment they stayed. PR lost tax revenue though, and the industries that did not get PR tax breaks moved out and the territory's economy tanked. But all these medical supplies were coming from PR in the first place because of US tax code that treated these companies like domestic subsidiaries, and then when Clinton changed the tax code he left the island and its medical supplies industry vulnerable to these sorts of risks and distress costs. Trump's only role is that he did not move quickly and proactively to abrogate the risk after the hurricane. But the medical supply industry shares some blame for not diversifying their supply chain and planning for this sort of risk.

 

... FEMA ends food support of Puerto Rico today, hopefully bipartisan congressional response will reverse that...

Lawmakers Urge FEMA To Reconsider Ending Food Aid For Puerto Rico

https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo...to-reconsider-ending-food-aid-for-puerto-rico

 

The US sends Puerto Rico 21 billion in aid annually no matter what, on top of that they sent nearly 50 billion in disaster relief last year and are looking to send an additional 80 billion this year.....and that's not enough to help them out? At some point you have to think that PR is just a lost cause.

 

Honest question, do they still need food aid?

 

I believe a big part of the challenge is the lack of power... 35% of Puerto Rico is still without power.

btw, good news, FEMA reversed field, now will continue to support Puerto Rico.

FEMA won't cut off food, water to Puerto Rico after all
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/politics/political-pulse/os-fema-puerto-rico-20180131-story.html

 

~30% of the island - mostly outside of the major cities - still has no electricity or clean water.

 

People are making some kind of logical leap that if they have power and running water shortages, they must also have food shortages. That doesn't necessarily follow, so I think it makes sense to ask the question.

 

That doesn't really answer the question though, can't the 70% of the island with clean water provide it for the 30% without it?

 

If one third of the Houston area (or one third of Texas) was without power or clean water for the many months Puerto Rico has been.. would you think it a leap to say that there would be a food (and water) shortage? Think about food storage, access to food, etc.

 

How hard is it to replace their extension cords?

 

Why is this something we have to guess at? Do they have good coverage of grocery stores with electricity and stocked inventory? No need to make inferences based on their utilities. As for your Texas hypothetical, if 2/3rds of Houston area grocery stores are open for business, but I don't have clean tap water or electricity at my house, I don't have a food shortage. It's going to be a pain in the butt buying ice and bottled water all the time, and either barbecuing or else eating things that don't need to be cooked. But, that's going to be true whether I get my food from FEMA or I get it from the store. Not saying Puerto Rico doesn't have problems, not saying that FEMA has 'done enough' for them already. But the criticism over not supplying food seems pretty knee-jerk if you can't even say there is a food shortage without taking inferences from power and water availability.

 

We will simply have to disagree. If two-thirds of the Houston area was without power or water for four months, FEMA would still be here providing food and water. And they are still in Puerto Rico. FEMA is saying the cut off of food and water was a mistake and that the Wednesday cut-off date was really just an internal review date to determine if aid was still needed.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/31/us/puerto-rico-fema-aid.html

 

Nice racist/classist jab. Kudos.

I'd imagine there are MREs in abundance so no starvation, which is wonderful. Potable water and general sanitation are a different story, from everything that's been reported. That's how diseases (cholera, dysentery, didn't we just have a Zika freakout?, etc...) run rampant.

 

See that’s where we’re at now. Seriously, why is it racist? Tasteless maybe but how is it racist?

 

You're right, apologies. Poor desperate people of all colors are notorious for stealing power with long ass extension cords.

That is why I added "classist".

 

I was referring to their infrastructure not stealing power. So are you saying poor people of color are notorious for stealing power? You racist b*stard!

 

No, I said poor people are. It is known.

Apologies for reading more into your "extension cord" comment than you intended.

 

Just jerking your chain, I was waiting for a witty return back. You not feeling well?

 

Hungry, hangry if you will, now. Waiting for traffic to slow so I can go get sushi. A filet-0-fish actually sounds appetizing right about now.

 

Is that 30% of the island or 30% of the population on the island?