Fiscally irresponsible states watching Puerto Rico's crisis, George Will:

Puerto Rico, an awkward legacy of America's 1898 testosterone spill, the Spanish-American War, is about to teach two things that few Americans know:

If conditions get bad enough there, its residents, who are American citizens, can come here.

And if Congress does not deal carefully with the mess made by the government in San Juan, Congress will find itself rescuing governments in Springfield, Ill., and other state capitals.

Puerto Rico's approximately 18 debt-issuing entities have debts - approximately $72 billion - they cannot repay. The Government Development Bank might miss a $422 million payment due in May, and the central government might miss a $2 billion payment in July. Congress will not enact a "bailout," meaning an infusion of U.S. taxpayers' money.

But some Democrats - perhaps anticipating a day of reckoning for their one-party state of Illinois and nurturing their indissoluble marriage to government employee unions, some of which have helped reduce Puerto Rico to prostration - want to reward the San Juan government's self-indulgence.

They favor pouring more Medicare, Medicaid, and other benefits into the island. They also favor giving protection of unionized government employees' pensions priority over payments even to holders of general obligation bonds guaranteed by the territory's constitution.