Posted on 08/19/2004 5:27:04 AM PDT by kattracks
His voice rising to a yell, Republican U.S. Senate nominee Alan Keyes told a bipartisan civic group Wednesday he "will not budge" from his belief that descendants of slaves should be exempted from income taxes to help heal the wounds of past discrimination and segregation.The former presidential candidate disdainfully brushed aside questions over whether his suggestion should apply to rich African Americans such as Tiger Woods, Michael Jordan or Oprah Winfrey.
"Do you know how many Oprah Winfreys there might have been running around in the 1930s or in the 1920s or in the 19-teens that got nowhere because the doors were shut in their face?" Keyes thundered. "If you think that because I wear a conservative label, I have forgotten that history and am not mindful of that injustice -- then I will tell you now that you are wrong."
Keyes delivered his blistering defense at a luncheon of the City Club of Chicago, scolding fellow conservatives who challenged his proposal and evoking the struggle of his African-American parents, saying they had talent and "hearts and spirit and strength and faith."
"Why didn't they get to a point where they could stand on this platform?" Keyes aked.
Vying against Democrat Barack Obama, Keyes drew heat from conservatives earlier this week when he proposed exempting descendants of slaves from income taxes for a generation or two, a view he insists "involves a traditionally Republican, conservative and market-oriented approach."
On Wednesday, Keyes ridiculed the fuss over his position, saying it is simply a tax break, something "Republicans and my conservative brethren" don't object to when applied to a "wealthy corporation."
Conservative activist Jack Roeser met with Keyes for what Roeser called "a long argument and an intense one" over the issue before the speech. A Barrington businessman, Roeser said he still is not sold on Keyes' reparations proposal, but still plans to support him anyway. "I will tell my friends that this is a good man, and we should support him."
Triangulation. Very un-Keyes.
What a clown. To think that I almost voted for him in the presidential primaries last time.
I like Alan Keyes. He is terrific. This concept of his will never fly....but it sounds good.
Keyes is using this as a precuser for tax cuts for all. It's a brillant strategy when you think about it, even if he loses the Senate race. The libs are falling all over this.
Hook, line and sinker....
Makes my head throb jus thinking that this is the best the GOP could put against Obama.
The odd thing is, most blacks don't pay federal income tax because they are in the lower half where very little federal income tax is paid by anyone. In fact many people get money back as a result of the earned income tax credit. The big winners would be athletes and rap stars, who would save millions.
They are pretty much already exempt from income taxes, given that they tend to be at the lower level of the income spread and the lowest 1/2 of the income earners only pay 3.5% of the income taxes in this country.
I agree that this is an excellent idea, as pointed out in this thread, many of these individuals don't pay income tax anyway. If the government offers a decade of no income tax it could also offer incentive to businesses to hire these people since they won't be required to pay matching funds....
The subject has been beaten to death here, but you have to give him credit here for sticking to his guns.
I didn't know he was so unstable.
Most black voters are not so dumb as to see that they have little if anything to benefit from this. All it does is disable our argument against reparations based on the greater principle of striving for a color blink society devoid of discrimination in any direction.
This will be seen as political opportunism on our part, and will be used as ammunition against us. Democrats will take the lead as the voice of reason and moderation in the working class.
Sowell is as wrong as anyone can be.
While tax cuts for all is a fine goal I'll be damned if I'll accept blame, even feigned blame, and responsibility for acts carried out 100 years before I was born.
No way. Not this white boy.
Oh, and just as an aside. Someone forgot to give me my 'Life on easy street cause your white' membership card when I was born. Who do I complain to about that?
If the door is ever slightly opened on reparations, it will never close. After no income tax it would be "no, not healed yet, you owe us more..." - it would never end, the "wounds" would never "heal".
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