Reprinted with permission (www.jimwalzforcongress.com)
The Trump Administration’s apathy toward Puerto Rico has put the entire county in jeopardy and the results have come home to Illinois.
One of the components for treatment requires I.V. bags which are now in critical shortage. Just days ago, a 4-year-old in our community died from complications relating to the flu. The Center for Disease Control warns it this flu season will get worse. This puts put us all at risk.
Numerous conditions are treated with I.V. bag delivered medications. Boston, nurses had to treat a patient with Gatorade and a pump through a stomach tube. Another hospital reported that nursing staff was on 24-hour vigil with syringe injections to keep a newborn stable because I.V. bags were not available.
When a major employer in Round Lake and Deerfield faces income challenges, so do we.
Our own Baxter with 48,000 employees is one of the largest manufacturers of these and other medical devices. In Puerto Rico, Baxter employs roughly 10% of the entire population. All three of their facilities on the island were affected by Hurricane Maria and continue to be 116 days later. When a major employer in Round Lake and Deerfield faces income challenges, so do we.
The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act supported by Congressman Hultgren adds an additional 12.5% tariff on every product imported from Puerto Rico, adding to the cost of goods. Baxter is just one of a few large pharmaceutical companies now struggling with their Puerto Rico operations. This adds to the cost for our hospitals and we are paying for it, some of us with our lives.
Where was Hultgren in support of this employer? His failure of leadership and critical lack of foresight shows that Hultgren isn’t standing with us.
All decisions have consequences.
Reporter David Begnaud has been covering the situation since day one, including the dramatic increase in suicides and murder rate as basic shelter, food, water are still at critical levels in Puerto Rico, and that illness and disease continues to spread.
Begnaud wrote on Twitter, “It’s also worth pointing out that the governor was in Florida today rallying displaced Puerto Rican survivors, who are staying in the state … to target Republicans in the 2018 midterm election.” This is happening everywhere.
For the over 180,000 Americans in Illinois of Puerto Rican heritage, I extend my deepest apologies for our failure of leadership. We have work to do.
Fast Facts:
- The looming budget crisis in Washington that threatens to shut down the government includes an impasse to fund relief efforts for Puerto Rico as well as the CHIP program.
- More than 100,000 Puerto Ricans have left for the continental U.S. after the hurricane
- The suicide rate in PR has jumped 16% with an estimated suicide every day since the hurricane while the murder rate in January 2018 alone is nearly double that of 2017, while in prior years these rates had fallen to the lowest levels in decades.
- Baxter Healthcare employed nearly 10% of the island’s entire population in facilities located in Jayuya, Aibonito, and Guayama, areas still struggling with brown-outs and unstable power.
- U.S. companies with a roughly 90,000 employees may all have to pay this 12.5% tariff if their licenses and patents are based on the island
- The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act includes special taxation and treatment for Purto Rico that was originally proposed at 20% and reduced to 12.5% when news about the tariff became public:
(Sec. 4401) This section extends the rules that apply to the deduction for income attributable to domestic production activities in Puerto Rico; (4) Section 55(c)(1) is amended by striking “, the section 936 credit allowable under section 27(b), and the Puerto Rico economic activity credit under section 30A”
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Purto Rico is not a foreign country, but the new tax law penalizes imports as if it were.
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Baxter Health, Abbot, Cardinal Health, Pfizer, and Merk are among those companies manufacturing in Puerto Rico - all with company headquarters or large facilities in Illinois.
About Jim Walz
Jim is an unapologetic Progressive Democrat running for Congress in Illinois’ 14 Congressional district working to unseat a climate-denier and Trump Administration puppet who’s complacency is hurting small business and working families. Jim is an advocate for the People’s Platform, the Green Economy, and Medicare for All.