Hell will freeze over before you do it. ; )
CARLSON: All right. I want to ask you question then, Ambassador Keyes. I take you serious, I take your ideas seriously, and I agree with most of them. So I was shocked the other day to see you give a press conference endorsing the idea of reparations for slavery, tax breaks for descendants of slavery. You said--pointing out that your opponent Barack Obama is not descended from slaves and you are. This struck me as a kind of essential betrayal of the beliefs you've been espousing in public for the last 20 years.KEYES: Oh, not at all. I have taken a strong position against schemes of extortion from the fellow citizens of people here in America, based on the idea that somehow or another that would be requital for slavery--and I made clear over the years that I think the blood and treasure sacrifice during the Civil War constituted that requital.
But I have also made clear every time I was asked that there was objective damage done to black Americans by the slave system. And there have been frequent efforts in American history, not thus far successful, to address the wounds that were left by that legacy.
What I have laid on the table repeatedly is a thoroughly Republican, thoroughly conservative approach that is actually borrowed from ancient history in terms of what the Roman empire used to do to respond to damaged communities. You give them tax relief. You give them a tax break to make up for the fact, for instance, in this case, that black folks toiled for generations at what was effectively a hundred percent tax rate.
And by doing this, you unleash their enterprise. Give them an incentive to work. Give people an incentive to own businesses. Without taking a penny out of anybody else's pocket, you're able to create an environment where people are encouraged to work to put a strong foundation under themselves instead of putting money in a bureaucracy to dominate their lives that undermines the moral foundations of their family and destroys their economic incentives.
As a matter of fact, it's a thoroughly conservative, thoroughly consistent Republican approach to a very serious challenge.
Thank you for posting the information.
My perspective is that that a tax break is reparations because black descendants of slaves would have discretionary income denied to Whites, Native Americans, etc.
In addition it is worse than direct reparations because those blacks who best overcame their problems stemming from slavery would benefit more than those with less success in overcoming those problems.
Final answer: Yes, Keyes favors reparations and a particularly noxious form.
And, absent budget cuts, there will be many who suffered various injustices who will be paying higher taxes to make up the difference.