Big news: I'm not discussing Trump's wild tariff gambit. I'm firmly in the wait and see territory. General consensus among your allies in the swamp is that most of it won't last. Folks will come to the table. Trump will end up rolling most of it back as they do. The bellyaching will have been for naught.
But, wait and see, eh?
Until then, this just in ...
ARE WE REALLY DOING THIS?
It might come as a shock, but in the current year of our lord 2025 - the post-woke era - people in power are still seriously discussing reparations for slavery.
In an overwhelming 101-36 vote, the Maryland statehouse has sent a bill to Gov. Wes Moore's desk to commission a study into the issue.
And what do they suggest, should we decide people who never held slaves ought to pay people who were never enslaved?
From AP:
Potential reparations outlined in the bill include official statements of apology, monetary compensation, property tax rebates, social service assistance, as well as licensing and permit fee waivers and reimbursement. Reparations also could include assistance with making a down payment on a home, business incentives, child care, debt forgiveness, and tuition payment waivers for higher education.
Everything. Literally. From simply apologizing to buying homes and buying debt. Though I love dinging property tax in almost any context, not this one.
Do we think it's even vaguely constitutional for the state to collect taxes based on race? Asking for a friend.
The government has already gotten involved in half of these only to make them all worse. How's subsidizing college played out over the past 20 years? Harvard now has to do remedial math classes, if that's any indication. Anyone remember Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac? Can Maryland's economy handle the inevitable mass defaults if the government foots the bill for home down payments?
And never mind child care. It's wildly expensive and already a giant, disease-ridden jungle gym. If you were to have a public option for child care it would be like dropping your kid off in Beirut every day.
And I'm reminded here of a famous Reagan quote, even though I'm not one of those guys who goes around quoting ol' Ron.
"I think you all know that I've always felt the nine most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the Government, and I'm here to help."
Goofy liberals might look at this menu of options and think thank god the government is finally doing something. But they'd only make each of these worse by miles.
Have we thought about maybe renovating the absolute mess black people are born into in Baltimore? The outcomes there are terrible and diving still yet.
The last Republican mayor of Baltimore, Theodore McKeldin, left office in 1967. Democrat rule for almost 60 years.
And how have black families fared since? The median income compared to whites hasn't moved an inch. Violent crime is still bouncing around the same-ish rate. Property crime likewise.
Well, at least it didn't get worse ... while it got significantly better for everyone else, everywhere else, since then ...
Mostly, I just can't believe we're still having this conversation. Should the study come back in the positive, what will the final toll be?
California, a state that never saw slavery, concluded after its own study that about $2.8 trillion would do the trick. More sober (by degrees) onlookers noted that would bankrupt the state forever. So their study amounted to perhaps the most expensive case of meaningless virtue signaling in history?
Take that, St. Anthony Fauci bumper stickers!
In other words, these aren't serious people and this is a giant waste of time.
Making people accountable for themselves, on the other hand, now that just might work. -- The Daily Caller
