President Barack Hussein Obama recently took his 2012 reelection campaign to the island of Puerto Rico in an attempt to corrall the Puerto Rican vote here in the States. The question is did he learn anything while there from the current Governor of Puerto Rico, Luis Fortuno. Governor Fortuno was elected in the 2008 elections and recieved over 220,00 votes, the most in recent history. One fact that is sure to suprise people is that while Governor Fortuno enjoys the support of being a member of the Republican National Committee, he is also the President of the New Progressive Party of Puerto Rico!

First let’s see just what Governor Fortuno has accomplished during his time in office, and just how he accomplished it. Sixty days into his administration as Governor, Mr. Fortuno announced the formation of his new Fiscal and Economic recovery Plan. This agressive plan included cutting a whopping over $2 billion dollars from bloated government expenditures at the start of the new fiscal year of 2009. The media started screaming that Fortuno’s drastic cuts would result in over 30,000 government employees being permanently laid off. This resulted in assorted protests, marches and even eggs being thrown at the governor, which resulted in jail time for the offender, and an increased security detail to protect the governor. To quote the new Governor of Puerto Rico when he took office and discovered the massive budget deficits, and was asked if it was a mess: ” Not just a mess, we do not have enough money to meet our first payroll! ”

Governor Fortuno had the benefit of the first conservative majority in Puerto Rico in 40 years, and they immediately cut the size of the government there, which employed a whopping one out of every three workers in Puerto Rico at the time. Government had certainly gone wild in the years before Fortuno took office. Thereis also a distinct pattern of just what the government employees demanded instead of cutting the government down to size. Just like Union enabled Democrats are calling for here in the States, they demanded that Fortuno raise taxes to cover his predessor’s big government expansion! Governor Fortuno instead, signed Law 1 in 2011, which revised the entire tax code that provides, retroactive to Jan 1, 2010 tax relief  which includes a tax cut of 50% for individuals and 30% for businesses! Governor Fortuno had already cut approximately 17,000 government employees off the payroll, which did make the initial unemployment numbers increase somewhat, but long-term Puerto Rico will be able to balance it’s budget while cutting taxes at the same time.

This is a prime example of how Liberal Democrats here in America dig themselves into a financial hole through big government expansion and then demand higher taxes on everyone to pay for their vote-buying schemes in order to stay in power. Upon arrival, Governor Fortuno did not have the money to meet his first payroll! Today, Puerto Rico is well on their way to increasing business and tourism, which then translates into more tax revenue for the government to operate with. So, as the title of this article asks, did Barack Obama learn anything from Governor Fortuno’s use of sound conservative principles, in how he has put Puerto Rico on the road to fiscal solvency ? Or will Barack Obama just continue with the Socialistic big government expansion that his Liberal Democrats are currently pushing him for?  The very same ones that include tax increases to cover the irresponsible spending of Barack Obama and his big-spending Democrats who are racking up trillion dollar deficits and a Debt to GDP ration that will have the federal government in thesame position as Governor Fortuno found himself upon taking office? You know, the afore-mentioned position of not having enough money to meet the first payroll?