Posted on 08/17/2004 5:58:48 AM PDT by Aquinasfan
One day after their first meeting, U.S. Senate hopefuls Barack Obama and Alan Keyes were back on the campaign trail again Monday.
Speaking at a news conference at the Hotel InterContinental in Chicago, Republican Keyes added to his now familiar talking points his stance on slavery reparations.
Prompted by a reporter's question, Keyes gave a brief tutorial on Roman history and said that in regard to reparations for slavery, the U.S. should do what the Romans did: "When a city had been devastated [in the Roman empire], for a certain length of time--a generation or two--they exempted the damaged city from taxation."
Keyes proposed that for a generation or two, African-Americans of slave heritage should be exempted from federal taxes--federal because slavery "was an egregious failure on the part of the federal establishment." In calling for the tax relief, Keyes appeared to be reaching out to capture the black vote, something that may prove difficult to do, particularly after his unwelcome reception at the Bud Billiken Day Parade Saturday...
(Excerpt) Read more at chicagotribune.com ...
I think not. Robert Reich and the other socialists have been talking about cutting taxes only for the "working class" for a long time, and what this does is effectively create a huge lobby that would work vigorously against cutting taxes for everyone else.
Look at Canada; The bottom 60 % pay about 5 % of the taxes and even when the labor Party was shown to be completely corrupt, they still won the elections in a landslide. Why should they cut taxes for others if they hardly pay any themselves?
And by the way..soon.... Coming to a country near you!
And what an unfortunate season, indeed, for some to renew their effort to extort "reparations" for slavery from their fellow citizens.A couple of guys played a sound bite of Keyes on WLSAM yesterday. Their set-up for the clip was as careful and uninformative as the one here in the news article. There was nothing in the clip itself that indicated he was talking about reparations. Only the set up caused one to think this. Keyes does, though, refer to the income tax as a slave tax and says that we should be freed from that. I bet that it comes out that this was deliberate political spin by Keyes opponents trying to weaken his support with IL Republicans.
Yet, lawsuits have been filed. Those responsible propose to settle the accounts of slavery leaving the Civil War out of the equation – complete and utter nonsense. The price for the sin of slavery has already been paid, in blood.
To answer the reparations question, we must re-awaken a living understanding of the great moral drama played out in blood, treasure and human spirit on the battlefields of America a century and a half ago.
Open your mind --- for one is Kobe Bryant from Illinois anyhow? This puts the debate for reparations on a new level --- Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson will come along and decry this -- say it's not fair to the welfare blacks who have no income. It's not fair to those already getting EITC because it only rewards those who pay into the system in the first place.
It's BS. If the GOP signs on to this kind of insanity then they run the risk of alienatating their southern base. Unless, of course, they also sign on to the other reparations movement, that of white southerners claiming damages from property destroyed by the Union army.
Please. Think again, Alan.
I also agree - NO reparations to ANY group EVER. Where will it end?
We've got Affirmitive Action. We've got Welfare. We've got Food Stamps. We've got Bussing.
"I suport the institutions I have mentioned through Taxation, and God knows they've cost enough!"
Stern is a one issue voter. He got mad about the FCC hassling him and switched his support to Kerry (although Kerry has no plans concerning the FCC). This after he spent years mocking the French (a popular FR sport), demanding tough action after 9/11 and being generally un-PC (also a popular FR sport).
Reparations using tax relief is a fresh idea. It's done for corporations anyhow.
Look where it will move the discussion on reparations --- what would be interesting would be the race baiters try to make the claim that those in prisons, those on welfare deserve reparations and won't get them if it's only for those who work and pay into the system.
Say it ain't so!
This is a part of Keyes I have NEVER suspected or heard of! He certainly didn't talk about this when he ran for President!!!!
To think, I voted for this guy against Bush during the primary!
What !?! Me paying 35 % of my gross in income taxes and you paying none? Is that what you consider conservative (and fair) ?
You'll never see another tax cut in your lifetime, thats for sure. Talk about pitting the "poor" against the "rich" !!
Yes, by all means look where it will move the discussion on reparations. To a level where it does not belong. Giving benefits to people for actions done before they were born and which did not materially affect them is the height of stupidity.
It's happening anyway. How many "contract laborers" from Mexico living up in Chicago do you think are filing their income tax forms paying anything at all? You won't find a handful who are. That is one large special interest group who is exempt from income taxes.
Many people pay no income tax and many actually get EITC --- a form of welfare --- a tax refund for taxes they didn't pay.
Tax breaks are letting you keep your own money, they aren't giving you anything.
So, Oprah Winfrey (who was the descendent of slaves) should have to pay no taxes? How about Michael Jordan, Sean Combs, etc...??? All these black people are talented and hard working and got ahead, just the way ANYONE who is talented and hard working can get ahead.
If anything, they should give tax breaks to talentles, lazy people, regardless of their skin color.
Keyes is making an argument for the elimination of the federal income tax in a round about puts the switcheroo on a liberal core belief, namely, that "oppressed" people need handouts to improve their lives. It is a favorite (and I think very clever) rhetorical approach of his. The details this proposal are not nearly as important as the philisophical debate it engenders? If tax cuts are good for one class of people, why not for all?
And I'd like to know where the reparations will come from for the damage caused by black riots in Detroit, L.A., Cleveland, etc.?
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