Rep. Cori Bush brings ‘Reparations Now’ decision to deal with $14 trillion ‘wealth gap’

Rep. Cori Bush, Missouri Democrat, mentioned she is bringing a congressional decision in help of reparations for slavery, arguing that federal motion is required to deal with the $14 trillion “Black-White wealth gap.”
 
The measure, dubbed “Reparations Now,” is meant to spice up H.R. 40, sponsored by Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, Texas Democrat, to type a federal fee to review and develop reparations proposals for Black Americans.
 
“When the Black-White wealth gap is $14 trillion, it’s unjust and it wouldn’t happen in a just and fair and equitable society,” mentioned Ms. Bush at a Wednesday press convention. “Those are not the natural consequences of human society, none of that. They are directly caused by our federal government’s role in the enslavement and exploitation of Africans or Black people throughout our history.”
 
Those backing Ms. Bush’s decision included Rep. Rashida Tlaib, Michigan Democrat, one other member of the far-left “squad” of House Democrats, who gave the Biden administration a nudge.
 
“Reparations is necessary towards really true equity,” mentioned Ms. Tlaib. “We hear the Biden administration and so many others talk about that word ‘equity.’ They need to make sure that reparations is part of the movement towards equitable distribution of resources.”
 
Bills to type reparations commissions have been launched in Congress each session since 1989, however the concern has drawn renewed consideration this 12 months with activity forces in California and San Francisco floating proposals for tons of of billions to compensate Black residents for the harms of slavery.
 
The San Francisco panel’s draft advice contains $5 million per eligible resident, which might price an estimated $175 billion. The metropolis’s annual funds is about $14 billion.
 
The California reparations activity power’s myriad proposals have an estimated price ticket of $800 billion, or greater than 2.5 instances the scale of the annual state funds. The last report is due June 30 to the state legislature, however Gov. Gavin Newsom has already put a damper on the concept of writing checks.
 
“Dealing with the legacy of slavery is about much more than cash payments,” he mentioned in an announcement final week. “Many of the recommendations put forward by the Task Force are critical action items we’ve already been hard at work addressing.”

#ReparationsNow pic.twitter.com/WxfQDM1KIV

— Congresswoman Cori Bush (@RepCori) May 17, 2023

Critics have argued that race-based reparations are doubtless unconstitutional and that “past discrimination does not explain present-day disparities in wealth or income,” mentioned civil-rights lawyer Hans Bader in a May 7 op-ed.

Reparations naysayers additionally contend that the nation paid the value for slavery with the Civil War and initiatives such because the $22 trillion War on Poverty.