OAN’s Abril Elfi
5:02 PM – Thursday, January 18, 2024
New York Democrat Representative Jamaal Bowman is co-funding a $14 trillion reparation bill against the federal government, citing ongoing systematic racism, American slavery, and the aftermath of it.
The bill, HR 414, would support the National Publishers Association, the National Association of Black Broadcasters, and the “restoration of voting rights for persons currently or previously incarcerated,” while providing free college education for Black Americans at the 107 HBCUs (historically black colleges and universities) across the nation.
Additionally, Bowman gave examples of why he believes the country can afford such a measure. He mentioned how the federal government gave continuous financial handouts during the COVID-19 pandemic as well as U.S. efforts to fund the “space race.”
“When COVID was destroying us, we invested in the American people in a way that kept the economy afloat,” said Bowman. “The government can invest the same way in reparations without raising taxes on anyone.”
“Where did the money come from?” Bowman said. “We spent it into existence.”
Bowman is one of the bill’s nine sponsors, which aims to prove that the U.S. has “a moral and legal obligation to provide reparations for the enslavement of Africans and its lasting harm on the lives of millions of Black people in the United States.”
The proposed law, which was first introduced in May of 2023, would require the federal government to invest $14 trillion in a reparations plan that would assist “Black and African American descendants of enslaved people.”
The measure addresses concerns over perceived racial disparities in housing, mass incarceration, and education.
The bill also states that it will “eliminate the racial wealth gap that currently exists between Black and White Americans.”
Bowman added that the “incarcerated should be able to vote.”
“And I definitely think that when they come out, they should automatically be enfranchised,” he asserted.
The representative also said that he believes the trillions of dollars can be distributed over decades, and not just all at once.
“Who says the $14 trillion needs to be paid out in one shot?,” said Bowman. “It might be possible for it to be paid out over five or 10 or 20 years. You could take that $333,000 and break it up into monthly checks over X amount of time. There are creative ways to do the right thing and do what needs to be done.”
According to academic estimates cited in the bill, the United States “gained over 222 trillion hours of [free] forced labor between 1619 and 1865, which would be valued at $97,000,000,000,000 today.”
“There were 246 years of free labor that produced trillions or hundreds of trillions of dollars for the U.S. economy,” said Bowman. “The economy wouldn’t exist in the way it does today if slavery hadn’t built it.”
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