Gavin Newsom is looking for a woke way to back out of paying reparations
Zachary Faria
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Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) knows that his state could never pay the reparations plan it is floating, so he is searching for a way to back out while still brandishing his woke credentials.
The California reparations task force has proposed an $800 billion plan to pay reparations to black residents for slavery that ended over 150 years ago. Newsom’s budget proposal for the state was just $300 billion, and the state has had to make cuts after shouldering a budget deficit thanks to declining tax revenue as students and businesses moved out during the pandemic.
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“Dealing with the legacy of slavery is about much more than cash payments,” Newsom said. “Many of the recommendations put forward by the task force are critical action items we’ve already been hard at work addressing.”
In other words, 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.
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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.
Newsom knows this, and he knows that either open support or opposition to this measure could obliterate any hope of a presidential run (that he is almost certainly still considering despite his public denials). California’s failures are already going to be an anchor around his neck, but he has been backed into a corner by a commitment to Black Lives Matter. He is in a no-win situation, and the only question is whether or not he will drag California even further down with him.