Mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz of San Juan, Puerto Rico said on the Rachel Maddow Show Tuesday that a tax proposal in the GOP tax plan would be a “more devastating blow” to Puerto Rico than the two hurricanes that hit the island in September.
"This would be a much more devastating blow to our economy than Irma and Maria put together," Cruz told Maddow of the GOP tax proposal which includes a 20 percent excise tax on goods imported from Puerto Rico to the mainland United States. She claims the provision would destroy the island’s economy.
San Juan mayor on GOP tax bill: "This would be a much more devastating blow to our economy than Irma and Maria put together." pic.twitter.com/iVQFsaHkWR
— Maddow Blog (@MaddowBlog) November 29, 2017
"[The economy] is crippled already, it would obliterate it," she said.
"The Republican Congress has promised we're going change the language, we’re going to change the language,” she continued. “But nothing happens. And that hurts the credibility of the Trump administration — if they have any credibility at all at this point — in terms of the Puerto Rican humanitarian crisis."
She told Maddow that right now Puerto Rico needs an eliminated debt, "tools for economic development," and "more sustainable and more eco-friendly power."
After the devastating hurricanes hit the island, the Mayor of Guaynabo, Angel Perez Otero, criticized Cruz for "playing politics" following the hurricanes and not showing up for coordination meetings with FEMA and Puerto Rican leaders.
Cruz was also criticized for wearing custom t-shirts on television in the aftermath of the natural disasters which read “help us we are dying” and “nasty” after Trump called her nasty on Twitter.