Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.) announced Tuesday that $14 trillion would go toward “the enslavement of Africans and the lasting harm it inflicts on millions of Black lives in the United States.” A compensation plan was proposed.
The progressive lawmaker called on the federal government to foot the bill, arguing there was a way to pay for it “without raising taxes on anyone.”
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“As COVID-19 was destroying us, we invested in the American people in a way that kept our economy afloat,” Bowman said. Said of journal news “The government can invest in reparations in the same way without raising taxes on anyone,” he said in an interview published on January 16.
“Where did that money come from?” he continued. “We spent it making it exist.”
Bowman is one of nine sponsors supporting: HR414, a resolution introduced by Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO) in May 2023, states that the United States must “take responsibility for the enslavement of Africans and the lasting harm to millions of black lives in Africa.” There is a moral and legal obligation to make reparations. US. ”
Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO) speaks during a press conference calling for a ceasefire between Israel and Gaza at the Capitol in Washington, October 20, 2023. (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib)
The proposal goes beyond slavery and also targets reparations for additional government policies that disenfranchised Black Americans, including “banking, consumer, housing, health, education, and employment discrimination.”
HR 414 also cites the U.S.'s “failure to protect or actively sanction Black people from white domestic terrorism and prosecute them in the event of terrorist attacks” and the “effects of government-imposed racial segregation.” .
The bill would require the federal government to pay at least $14 billion in fiscal reparations, estimated by economists, to close the racial wealth gap that currently exists between black and white Americans. It is written, “It must be done.”
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The resolution states that the United States “benefited from 222,505,049 hours of forced labor between 1619 and the abolition of slavery in 1865, equivalent to $97 billion in today's dollars.” This includes estimates by academics.
With a $14 trillion price tag in perspective, the federal government says: Spent According to the 2022 financial year, it will amount to just $6.13 trillion. US Treasury.
of journal news It was calculated that each black American could receive more than $300,000 from the proposed plan.
According to the 2020 Census, there are approximately 42 million African Americans in the United States, making up 12% of our nation's population. That means the proposed reparations program could pay out about $333,000 per person. Bowman said it could be paid out over decades.
“Who said we had to pay $14 trillion all at once?” the lawmaker said. “He might be able to pay it off over five, 10, 20 years. He could also split the $333,000 into X number of monthly checks.”
“There are creative ways to do the right thing and do what needs to be done,” he added.
