Some may call it having created a monster. Others may say he’s being hoist with his own petard. What’s for sure is that after helping create his state’s “Task Force to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African Americans,” California Governor Gavin Newsom is stuck between a rock and a very, very expensive place:
His task force just recommended an $800 billion reparations scheme — and Newsom, realizing he doesn’t actually have a money tree and that 27 more California gold rushes aren’t nigh, is balking at the bill.
In fact, now, says he, dealing with the Legacy of Slavery™ “is about much more than cash payments.”
Apparently, Hair Gel Gavin forgot to ensure that his task force appointees shared his primary concern: posturing. And as Obama’s erstwhile pastor Jeremiah Wright might say, “The chickens have come home to roost.”
Of course, though, if this isn’t about “cash payments,” what is it about? Holding activists’ grasping hands and singing Kumbaya?
Newsom explains. Per Fox News:
“The Reparations Task Force’s independent findings and recommendations are a milestone in our bipartisan effort to advance justice and promote healing. This has been an important process, and we should continue to work as a nation to reconcile our original sin of slavery and understand how that history has shaped our country,” Newsom said in a statement to Fox News Digital.
While the Democratic governor applauded the task force’s work, he declined to endorse any specific recommendations, though he pledged to continue to “advance systemic changes that ensure an inclusive and equitable future for all Californians.”
“Dealing with that legacy is about much more than cash payments. Many of the recommendations put forward by the Task Force are critical action items we’ve already been hard at work addressing: breaking down barriers to vote, bolstering resources to address hate, enacting sweeping law enforcement and justice reforms to build trust and safety, strengthening economic mobility — all while investing billions to root out disparities and improve equity in housing, education, healthcare, and well beyond. This work must continue,” he said.
“Following the Task Force’s submission of its final report this summer, I look forward to a continued partnership with the Legislature to advance systemic changes that ensure an inclusive and equitable future for all Californians.”
Uh-huh, yeah. The leeches just want money. Never mind that California was never a slave state. Never mind that it was part of the Union during the War Between the States. Never mind that the $800 billion reparations figure dwarfs California’s entire $300 billion budget and that declining tax revenue and a consequent deficit have already compelled the state to make cuts. For “a Black Californian who checks enough boxes, the total payout could reach $1.2 million,” informs Fox.
This doesn’t mean, however, that it’s time to relocate to the Golden State and pull a Rachel Dolezal. As the Washington Examiner writes:
California can’t even remotely afford to pay its own reparations recommendations, and Newsom knows it. He is already looking for an escape hatch for when California either declines to enact the plan or dramatically reduces the size and scope of reparations payments.
Stop focusing so much on the money, he says, and look at all these vague things we have already done, such as “bolstering resources to address hate” or “breaking down barriers to vote.” This is “about much more than cash payments” — so much more that it shouldn’t be a problem if we have to knock the price tag down a few hundred billion dollars.
Newsom is not alone in this, either. State Sen. Steven Bradford has acknowledged that some of his Democratic colleagues are already sour on the idea.
California is a failing state. It is running residents out with its brutal cost of living and its hostile business climate. Law enforcement there is failing to protect workers in its cities. The state lost a congressional seat after the 2020 census thanks to its declining population — the first time the state had ever lost a seat. By 2030, it could lose up to five seats in Congress if migration trends continue. It’s not exactly an ideal time to burn $800 billion on a virtue-signaling reparations plan that the state quite literally cannot afford.
The Examiner points out that (with dotard Joe Biden in office) Newsom has his eye on the presidency, and that overtly supporting or opposing the reparations plan could scuttle his chances. He’s in a “no-win situation,” the site states — “the only question is whether or not he will drag California even further down with him.”
This said, the $800 billion Golden State figure is just the beginning. A Duke University economist estimated some months ago that nationwide reparations sufficient to end black Americans’ “claims for race-specific restitution” would cost up to $14 trillion — more than two-thirds the U.S. economy’s size. And last year, a different professor calculated that “complete reparations” would require each white child to support 16 minorities.
Of course, it wouldn’t be just white children footing the bill. Our country is now only 59.3 percent non-Hispanic white, along with 18.9 percent Latino, 12.6 percent black, and 5.9 percent Asian-descent. How would these “diverse” people react to the government giving their tax money to blacks? As when parents show obvious favoritism toward some of their children at the expense of the others, resentment will develop.
The point is that as financially expensive as reparations would be, even just talking about them is far more socially expensive than most appreciate.
