The famous creator and star of Broadway’s Hamilton, Lin-Manuel Miranda, appeared on Last Week Tonight with John Oliver to appeal for debt relief for the island of Puerto Rico. His rap concluded John Oliver's segment that provided an extended look into Puerto Rico's financial woes:
My family’s from Puerto Rico, the tropical destination
Where you can spend your Washingtons — the spot where you vacation
The commonwealth with not a lot of wealth and not quite nation
Seventy billion dollar topic of conversation
Puerto Rico currently faces a $72 billion debt crisis, which has already caused the island to default on some of its payments. According to The New York Times, the crisis is so bad that “Public hospitals have closed floors and are rationing medicine at a time when health experts fear a surge in Zika infections that can cause birth defects.” Miranda, whose parents are both from Puerto Rico, appeared on John Oliver’s HBO show on April 24 to appeal for federal government action to relieve the island of some of its debt:
This is an island a hundred miles across
A hurricane is coming and we’re running up a loss
This comes after Miranda appealed to Congress at an April 16 news conference in Washington: “We have a humanitarian crisis on our hands. ... We face a financial crisis that triples anything you've experienced in the United States.”
Watch John Oliver’s full segment on Puerto Rico’s debt crisis here, and watch Miranda’s rap below:
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