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Brown-Waite Defiant In Face Of Attacks

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Tony Marrero

Published: February 8, 2008

BROOKSVILLE - BROOKSVILLE - The firestorm over U.S. Ginny Brown-Waite's remark calling Puerto Ricans "foreign citizens" grew so hot this week that Brown-Waite finally responded with a statement late Thursday.

But the strong words are quite the opposite of the mea culpa that Puerto Ricans and political groups have demanded.

"I am deeply disappointed that (Democrat leaders) engaged in the kind of race-baiting politics we have come to expect from their party," Brown-Waite said in the statement. "Apparently when fiscal conservatives have facts on their side, like I do here, the only way to defeat them is to attack us personally.

"Whether it is Bill Clinton in South Carolina, Hillary Clinton in California or frequent Democratic congressional candidate Charlie Stuart in Central Florida today, we are seeing Democrats sink to new levels in desperation to capture Latino votes in Florida," the statement continued. "Orlando area Democrat leaders have taken a detailed policy discussion and turned it into a personal attack. Perhaps they realized that they cannot win on the issues, so they have resorted to name calling and demagoguery."

Last week, Brown-Waite issued a press release explaining that she would support the federal economic stimulus package that provides federal income tax rebates, but did so "reluctantly" because it included rebates for "foreign citizens" in Puerto Rico and Guam because they do not pay federal income taxes.

The chorus of condemnation over the terminology came swiftly and included harsh words from the Puerto Rico House, which passed a resolution calling the comment ignorant.

The refrain reached an apparent crescendo Wednesday when members of the Central Florida Democratic Party and the Orange County chapter of the Democratic Hispanic Caucus Hispanics, among others, headed to Orlando City Hall and read a letter to Brown-Waite that called her comment bigoted and reflected "a level of ignorance that is unacceptable as a U.S. Representative."

They reminded Brown-Waite that President Woodrow Wilson signed the Jones Act in 1917 that made Puerto Ricans U.S. citizens. And they repeated calls for an apology.

Earlier in the week, Brown-Waite's spokesman had clarified that the press release used the wrong wording and should have referred to residents of the islands of Guam and Puerto Rico as "territorial citizens," but said that no apology was forthcoming.

"The facts are that I have already issued a clarification that using the word territorial would have been a better choice of words; case closed," Brown-Waite said in Thursday's statement.

The issue, Brown-Waite said, is still the same and one she won't apologize for: "Is it fair or fiscally responsible to give tax rebate checks to folks who have not paid into the federal income tax system?My 5th District residents, and most Americans, would answer no."

Millie Herrera, president of the Democratic Hispanic Caucus of Florida, said in an interview Friday that the issue is indeed a partisan one, but not in the way that Brown-Waite is spinning it.

"If anybody is resorting to demagoguery and rhetoric it is her and the Republicans who need to cover up the fact that they have done nothing for our community and the working class by resorting to racism and bigotry," Herrera said. "For her to use Latinos as a punching bag because of her lack of positive action to improve our economy is unconscionable. She should be ashamed of herself."

Undeserving earmark or fair distribution?

The disagreement over the policy is as large, if not as prominent, as the one over Brown-Waite's terminology.

Herrera on Friday echoed arguments that Puerto Ricans have made for more than a week: that island residents fight in the military, pay Social Security and Medicare and Medicaid and deserve the same benefits as their mainland brethren even if they do not pay federal income tax.

Herrera said the language of the bill, which passed on Thursday, calls for the Puerto Rican government to design a rebate program and pay from its own coffers.

That's only half-true, Brown-Waite said.

In an interview Friday, Brown-Waite cited language of the bill that the U.S. Treasury will make "a payment to each possession of the United States…in an amount estimated by the Secretary of the Treasury as being equal to the aggregate benefits."

That, she said, clearly means that the money will not only come from U.S. Treasury coffers, but won't even go directly to island residents. Instead, she said, it will be a "giveaway" to the territorial governments to dole out the money as they please.

She claims that the language was "snuck into (the bill) in the middle of the night" by U.S. Rep. Jose Serrano of New York and not discussed when the package was in the conference stage. She called it "the type of backroom deal that the American public has rejected time and again."

Serrano said in an interview Friday that is "a misinformed statement that goes along with the rest of the misinformed statements she's made."

He said the language was in the bill at an early stage.

"When you decide at the beginning of the process to include all Americans, all veterans of our wars, all people who live in the boundaries where the American flag waves, that's not an earmark, that's fairness," Serrano said.

Puerto Ricans on the island, he said, will spend their tax money at their local Costco, Sam's Club and Circuit City, providing the intended jumpstart to American companies and creating jobs.

"It's one economy," he said.

Rose Fernandez, a Dade City resident originally from Cuba, is a Democrat but agrees with Brown-Waite, "the only Republican I voted for," she said.

The rebate system is unfair and Brown-Waite is "courageous" for standing up and saying so, Fernandez said.

"That's giving our money that we worked for to them," she said.

Rachel Rodriguez, a Spring Hill resident of Puerto Rican descent, said that kind of thinking upsets her stomach.

She said she, too, voted for Brown-Waite and even campaigned for her, but will now help in the effort to unseat her.

Island residents deserve the relief, too, Rodriguez said.

"We are born under the American flag," she said, "just like her."

Reporter Tony Marrero can be reached at 352-544-5286 or lmarrero@hernandotoday.com.

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