Pushback: White House cites $91 billion for Puerto Rico, hits corruption, incompetence.
The Trump White House Wednesday said that it is prepared to spend up to a record $91 billion to help Puerto Rico recover from a September 2017 hurricane even though it cited the island’s history of corruption and mismanagement.
With President Trump under fire for being critical of Puerto Rico on Twitter, and Democrats blocking a disaster funding bill if the administration doesn’t cough up more cash for the island, the White House pushed back, claiming it has given historic levels of money so far.
“Puerto Rico is on track to receive an historic level of aid for disaster recovery, in spite of the fact that it has repeatedly failed to manage its finances appropriately,” said the administration.
The Trump administration says it has allocated over $40 billion so far and could spend up to $91 billion, “far exceeding funding for states hit by other recent disasters.”
Ever since Hurricane Maria hit, the president has been criticized by congressional lawmakers and Democrats on the island for not doing more to help it recover from the disaster, despite pouring historic levels of resources into the effort.
With Democrats pushing for more help, the president went on Twitter to push back and the White House offered facts and figures to back him up today as the fight escalated.
Punch back twice as hard.
h/t GR