A New York lawmaker wants the federal government to push for a $14 trillion reparations measure.
The measure is being promoted by “Squad” member Rep. Jamaal Bowman, D-N.Y., who wants to hold the federal government accountable for slavery and its consequences, according to the Journal News.
Bowman cited the federal government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the “space race” initiative as examples that would make the measure feasible.
“When COVID was destroying us, we invested in the American people in a way that kept the economy afloat,” Bowman said. “The government can invest just as much in reparations without raising taxes on anyone.”
“Where does the money come from?” Bowman said. “We spent it into existence.”
Bowman is among nine sponsors of HR 414, which seeks to establish that the United States has “a moral and legal obligation to provide reparations for the enslavement of Africans and its lasting harm to the lives of millions of black people in the United States.”
The measure, introduced in 2023, would lead the federal government to spend $14 trillion on a reparations program that would support descendants of enslaved Blacks and African descendants.
Black people make up 12% of the US population, according to census figures.
The bill apparently comes three decades after another bill that sought to form a federal commission to study reparations.
Robert Miller
The measure to establish a federal commission on the impact of reparations was reintroduced this year and Bowman is one of its sponsors.
The measure could address concerns about perceived racial disparities in housing, mass incarceration and educational outcomes and, as the bill says, “eliminate the racial wealth gap that currently exists between black and white Americans.”
Bowman added that “incarcerated people should be able to vote.”
“And I definitely think that when they come out, they should automatically be given the right to vote,” he said.
“To put the price tag in perspective, the federal government spent about $7 trillion in 2020, about 28% of the country’s $25 trillion economy,” the Journal News reported.
Bowman said paying for reparations could be similar to how the country paid for the “space race” in the 1960s. AP Bowman referred to the United States’ response to the COVID-19 pandemic when “the money came up.” fake images
Bowman believes the $14 trillion could be spread out over decades.
“Who says $14 trillion has to be paid all at once?” Bowman said.
“It may be possible to pay it off in five, ten or twenty years. You could take that $333,000 and divide it into monthly checks for X amount of time. “There are creative ways to do the right thing and do what needs to be done.”
The bill cites estimates by scholars that the United States benefited from more than 222 billion hours of forced labor between 1619 and the end of slavery in 1865, “which today would be valued at $97,000,000,000,000.” .
“It was 246 years of free labor that produced trillions or hundreds of trillions of dollars for the American economy,” Bowman said. “The economy would not exist as it does today if slavery had not built it.”
Bowman sponsored a measure to establish a federal commission on the impact of reparations that was reintroduced this year. CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images
The bill does not have a sponsor in the Senate.
Bowman’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
This is the latest attempt to push for reparations at the federal level. Similar efforts are underway across the country in blue states, including San Francisco.
Gov. Kathy Hochul signed the bill to create a “community commission to study the history of slavery in New York State” to examine “various forms of reparations.” AP
In December, New York established a commission to explore the best methods of providing reparations to descendants of slaves.
Gov. Kathy Hochul signed the bill to create a “community commission to study the history of slavery in New York State” to examine “various forms of reparations.”
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Source: vtt.edu.vn