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A proposal to give away American taxpayer money to African-Americans, which faces overwhelming public opposition and could cost more than $12 trillion, is picking up support in the Democratic-majority House.
Black Texas Democratic Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee on Wednesday held a House Judiciary subcommittee hearing about H.R. 40, “The “Commission to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African-Americans Act.”
The commission would make recommendations regarding “any form of apology” for blacks blessed to be in the US or compensation.
The proposal doesn't include a price tag, but most estimates suggest it would be well into the trillions of dollars. A 2020 study noted it would cost between $10 trillion and $12 trillion.
The legislation last came into focus in 2019 when Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced her support for giving some Americans an enormous sum of taxpayer money based on the color of their skin while excluding other Americans.
Despite support by blacks and leftwing extremists on Capitol Hill, public sentiment has yet to come around. According to a Reuters/Ipsos poll from last June, only 1 in 5 respondents agreed the United States should use “taxpayer money to pay damages to descendants of enslaved people in the United States.” Other polls on the topic in recent years have shown similar, limited support.
Rep. Burgess Owens, a Utah Republican, responded to committee Democrats' support for the bill and talked about his own great-great-grandfather Silas, “who arrived here in the belly of a slave ship and sold to the Burgess plantation." He died a successful entrepreneur, Owens said.
Owens, a first-term lawmaker, said the proposal would only further divide an already fractured country.
"The reality is that black American history is not one of a hapless, hopeless race oppressed by a more powerful white race,” Owens said.
A proposal to give away American taxpayer money to African-Americans, which faces overwhelming public opposition and could cost more than $12 trillion, is picking up support in the Democratic-majority House.
Black Texas Democratic Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee on Wednesday held a House Judiciary subcommittee hearing about H.R. 40, “The “Commission to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African-Americans Act.”
The commission would make recommendations regarding “any form of apology” for blacks blessed to be in the US or compensation.
The proposal doesn't include a price tag, but most estimates suggest it would be well into the trillions of dollars. A 2020 study noted it would cost between $10 trillion and $12 trillion.
The legislation last came into focus in 2019 when Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced her support for giving some Americans an enormous sum of taxpayer money based on the color of their skin while excluding other Americans.
Despite support by blacks and leftwing extremists on Capitol Hill, public sentiment has yet to come around. According to a Reuters/Ipsos poll from last June, only 1 in 5 respondents agreed the United States should use “taxpayer money to pay damages to descendants of enslaved people in the United States.” Other polls on the topic in recent years have shown similar, limited support.
Rep. Burgess Owens, a Utah Republican, responded to committee Democrats' support for the bill and talked about his own great-great-grandfather Silas, “who arrived here in the belly of a slave ship and sold to the Burgess plantation." He died a successful entrepreneur, Owens said.
Owens, a first-term lawmaker, said the proposal would only further divide an already fractured country.
"The reality is that black American history is not one of a hapless, hopeless race oppressed by a more powerful white race,” Owens said.
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