Lin-Manuel Miranda offers to sing 'Hamilton' for Paul Ryan in plea for Puerto Rico relief

Published December 01, 2016

The ongoing financial crisis in Puerto Rico is getting Lin-Manuel Miranda fired up.

The star and creator of the hit Broadway musical, “Hamilton,” took his concerns to television with a rapped plea for debt relief on “Last Week Tonight With John Oliver.”

"My family is from Puerto Rico, the tropical destination, where you can spend your Washingtons, the spot where you vacation," he rapped. "A commonwealth with not a lot of wealth and not quite nation, a $70 billion topic of conversation."

"This is an island 100 miles across, a hurricane is coming, and we're running up a loss," he continued.

In the video above, Miranda's rap starts around minute 19:00.

Miranda, a New Yorker whose parents were born in Puerto Rico, has been quite vocal in urging Congress to pass legislation that would help island get out from under its $70 billion debt.

“Paul Ryan, I’ll come sing ‘Hamilton’ at your house,” the 36-year-old Miranda rapped on the HBO show. “I’ll do-si-do with Pelosi. I’ll wear my Hamilton blouse.”

He recently spoke to Congress on the matter, asking politicians to work out a plan to restructure Puerto Rico’s debt and imploring that they take action on behalf of the 3.5 million American citizens on the island.

“I hope [they pass a bill]. I don’t believe this is a partisan issue,” Miranda told Fox News Latino recently. “I believe this is a perfect storm of economic recession and bad decisions on every level. It’s a humanitarian issue at this point. American citizens are suffering, and if it were any other part of the United States, Congress would have done something already.”

Oliver, who is known for his in-depth comedic reports, made his own plea.

"We need to stop treating Puerto Rico like it's just a tax haven," he said. "Instead, we have to start treating it like an island of American citizens whose fate is interwoven with ours."

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