[chimeracoder]

> So the IRS can tax Americans everywhere in the world except Puerto Rico?

Congress passed some tax laws to incentivize "investment" in Puerto Rico. They haven't been particularly effective.

The reason that they passed these tax laws is because they wanted to try something to boost the Puerto Rican economy that did not involve addressing the underlying issue for why Puerto Rico's economy has stagnated for decades. Repealing the Jones Act would fix most of these problems, but the Jones Act is politically popular with major Democratic supporters, and Republicans (as a party) tend not to care about Puerto Rico, so the initiative to repeal it never went anywhere.

In the end, there's no amount of tax incentivizing that can make up for the costs that the Jones Act imposes on the Puerto Rican economy, which is why the tax laws didn't halt the brain drain. Of course, the failure to provide effective disaster relief in Puerto Rico this past year hasn't exactly helped either.

[jgh]

Why is the Jones Act popular with democrats?

[chimeracoder]

> Why is the Jones Act popular with democrats?

The Jones Act creates artificial scarcity in the shipping industry, boosting the demand for jobs in ships that are unionized by Democratic-supporting groups: namely the AFL-CIO.

The AFL-CIO has lobbied heavily not just against repealing it entirely, but even against temporarily waiving it for relief in Puerto Rico, the way it has been temporarily waived for relief in basically every recent natural disaster (including in Houston after Harvey).

[p_eter_p]

"The domestic shipping industry is an economic behemoth in Florida, contributing 52,140 maritime jobs and $9.6 billion to Florida’s economy, according to a 2014 study by PricewaterhouseCoopers. The Port of Jacksonville is the nation’s hub for Jones Act shipping to Puerto Rico, and Florida ranks second among all states in jobs affected by the domestic maritime industry."

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/weather/hurricane/article177...

[chimeracoder]

> "The domestic shipping industry is an economic behemoth in Florida, contributing 52,140 maritime jobs and $9.6 billion to Florida’s economy, according to a 2014 study by PricewaterhouseCoopers. The Port of Jacksonville is the nation’s hub for Jones Act shipping to Puerto Rico, and Florida ranks second among all states in jobs affected by the domestic maritime industry."

While that's true, that's not the reason that Democrats specifically are unwilling to touch the Jones Act. Florida is a pretty purple state, and Democratic senators from other states don't care as much about the shipping industry in Florida. Furthermore, Marco Rubio (a Republican) represents Florida, but he was actually a strong advocate of waiving (though not repealing) the Jones Act after Hurricane Maria.

The reason Democrats in particular are unwilling to touch the Jones Act is because the AFL-CIO lobbies for it very, very heavily. The AFL-CIO lobbies for the Jones Act in general because it boosts the demand for jobs in unions that they control. In addition, the AFL-CIO also has a "complicated" relationship with Puerto Rico, which is why they so specifically opposed temporarily waiving the Jones Act for Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria hit, even though they've begrudgingly accepted temporary waivers for US cities hit by other recent hurricanes (like Harvey in Houston).

[dragonwriter]

> The reason Democrats in particular are unwilling to touch the Jones Act is because the AFL-CIO lobbies for it very, very heavily.

Plenty of Democrats, especislly since Bill Clinton’s Presidency, have been on the side of corporations against the AFL-CIO and organized labor generally on lots of issues of central importance.

[chimeracoder]

> Plenty of Democrats, especislly since Bill Clinton’s Presidency, have been on the side of corporations against the AFL-CIO and organized labor generally on lots of issues of central importance.

First of all, the AFL-CIO is a corporation, so this isn't really a meaningful dichotomy.

But moreover, I'm not sure why this comment is at all relevant? Sure, sometimes Democrats might not always vote the way the AFL-CIO wants, but that doesn't change the fact that the AFL-CIO are major influencers of the Democratic party platform, and it's not at all debatable that the AFL-CIO has lobbied incredibly heavily in favor of the Jones Act.