'Squad' lawmaker explains 'creative' way to pay $14 trillion in reparations: ‘Moral and legal obligation’

A New York lawmaker wants the federal government to push a $14 trillion reparations measure.

The measure is touted by "Squad" member Rep. Jamaal Bowman, D-N.Y., who wants the federal government to be held accountable for slavery and the aftermath of it, according to the Journal News.

Bowman cited the federal government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the "space race" endeavor 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," 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."

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Bowman is among nine sponsors of H.R. 414, which seeks to establish 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 measure, introduced in 2023, would prompt the federal government to spend $14 trillion on a reparations program that would support the descendants of enslaved Black people and people of African descent. Blacks make up 12% of the population in the U.S., according to Census figures.

Reportedly, the bill comes three decades after another bill that sought to assemble a federal commission to study reparations. The measure to establish a federal commission on the impact of reparations was reintroduced this year and Bowman is a sponsor of it.

The measure could address concerns over perceived racial disparities in housing, mass incarceration, and education outcomes, and, as the bill states, "eliminate the racial wealth gap that currently exists between Black and White Americans."

Bowman added that "incarcerated should be able to vote."

"And I definitely think that when they come out, they should automatically be enfranchised."

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"To put the price-tag in perspective, the federal government spent about $7 trillion in 2020, about 28% of the nation's $25 trillion economy," the Journal News reported.

Bowman believes that the $14 trillion could be distributed over decades.

"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 5 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."

The bill cites scholars’ estimates that the U.S. benefited from over 222 trillion hours of forced labor between 1619 and the end of slavery in 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."

The bill does not have any sponsors in the Senate.

Bowman's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

This is the latest attempt to push reparations on the federal level. Similar efforts are underway across the country in blue states, including San Francisco, California. 

New York in December established a commission to explore the best methods of providing reparations to descendants of slaves. 

Gov. Kathy Hochul signed the bill for a "community commission to study the history of slavery in New York state" to examine "various forms of reparations."