Groaning under at least $73 billion in debt, Puerto Rico — which is being called “America’s Greece” — is staggering down a path toward default, a scenario that could ripple across cities and states that depend on bonds for building everything from schools to stadiums.
“This is not about politics,” García Padilla said. “It’s about math.”
The territory’s plight is also a potentially explosive issue in Washington, where congressional Republicans mostly oppose any step that would allow Puerto Rico to seek bankruptcy protection to restructure its debts and clean up its fiscal mess. Meanwhile, the White House has offered only modest assistance in the roughly three years of crisis talks and has avoided taking any position on whether Puerto Rico could resort to bankruptcy for itself or its government-owned corporations.
