“Mild taxation without representation” being, after all, a famous motto of the American Revolution.

Also, The Jones Act (which, for Puerto Rico, is very similar to the kind of regulation of trade without local representation, that was, as much or more than taxation as such, the impetus for the American Revolution) is estimated to cost Puerto Rico almost as much as federal taxation does.

As a yucky neoliberal, I am 100 percent in favor of repealing the Jones Act and PR (and Washington DC) statehood. I’m just not going to pretend that PR pays for a small fraction of what it receives in indirect benefits from the mainland.