The San Francisco Chronicle is reporting that some California reparations bills are already facing opposition. The story is behind a paywall, but I oppose reparations, so the headline is true.
Some California reparations bills are already facing opposition and hints that they'll be challenged in court. https://t.co/3jcP5ZZPMh
— Sara Libby (@SaraLibby) April 9, 2024
I'm not sure which reparations bills in particular the story is referring to; as far as I knew, there wasn't yet any legislation pending. The last I'd heard, the city of San Francisco had allocated $50 million to open an "Office of Reparations." Last spring, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors was impressed by the proposal from the San Francisco African American Reparations Advisory Committee.
The proposal? A one-time, lump-sum payment of $5 million to each resident of the city who qualified. Not only that; the committee also proposed wiping out all debts associated with educational, personal, credit card, and payday loans for black households. Not just your student loans but your credit card loans would be canceled. All of your loans would be canceled.
Oh, and the proposal also calls for guaranteed annual incomes of at least $97,000 for 250 years and homes in San Francisco for just $1 a family. A $1 home in San Francisco, plus $5 million cash on top. We're not sure why they'd need a guaranteed income of $97,000 if they're multi-millionaires.
NBC News at the time reported that "the plan faces strong criticism from conservatives." I'd bet it wasn't just conservatives who criticized the proposal.
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That's just the city; the California Assembly Task Force proposed a $200 million payout to every black person. That sure beats $5 million, although if you lived in San Francisco, you'd probably qualify for both.
Rep. Cori Bush has done the math for nationwide reparations and says it will cost $14 trillion. The entire U.S. GDP was $25 trillion in 2022. So where would the $14 trillion come from? Bush suggested reducing spending on defense and abroad.
How about no? There's not a person living who was enslaved, although I've been told there's generational trauma that's passed through the DNA that affects everything, including the quality of sleep.
I used to really enjoy listening to Walter E. Williams fill in for Rush Limbaugh. Williams had put up on his website a form releasing you from any reparations. Williams went so far as to say that if not for slavery, he wouldn't have been born in the United States and been given all of the opportunities he's had.
And why should current immigrants pay reparations when they didn't benefit from slavery in any way? They only just arrived here.
Of course reparations bills are facing opposition — they should. There are no slave owners or slaves still alive. Is San Francisco still calling for $5 million a person plus a $1 house? Who'd oppose that?
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