US has ‘moral and legal obligation’ to pay $14 trillion in reparations, claims ‘Squad’ member Jamaal Bowman

United States Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.) recently sponsored a bill that claims the country has a “moral and legal obligation” to dish out $14 trillion in reparations, Fox News Digital reported.

Bowman, a Democratic “Squad” member, backed H.R. 414, which seeks to provide trillions of dollars in reparations “for the enslavement of Africans and its lasting harm on the lives of millions of Black people in the United States.”

“Whereas Black people are, and have always been, human beings, yet the Federal Government has historically failed to recognize our dignity and humanity,” the bill read.

“The Federal Government must compensate descendants of enslaved Black people and people of African descent.”

The legislation, sponsored by Bowman and thirteen other Democratic lawmakers, claimed that the U.S. government had implemented “policies that led to the economic, political, and social erosion of Black communities” and “fail[ed] to keep Black people safe from or actively sanctioning White domestic terrorism and failing to prosecute it when it occurred.”

It accused the federal government of being directly responsible for imposing segregation, which led to “harmful health outcomes and environmental racism,” “ongoing harms of racialized mass incarceration and family separation,” and “banking, consumer, housing, health, education, and employment discrimination.”

“Whereas reparations must be administered by the Federal Government to descendants of enslaved Black people and people of African descent for sanctioning the kidnapping and trafficking of human beings, creating and maintaining a violent racial hierarchy, embedding slavery and other methods of economic exploitation into the fabric of society, and emboldening White supremacy with legal, social, and economic tools of control,” the bill continued.

It further stated that the U.S. benefited from slave labor between 1619 and 1865 that is “valued at $97,000,000,000,000 today.”

Supporters of the legislation, introduced in 2023, claimed it would “eliminate the racial wealth gap that currently exists between Black and White Americans.”

Bowman argued that the Democrats’ reparations plan does not need to be paid in one lump sum but can be disbursed over decades.

“Who says the $14 trillion needs to be paid out in one shot?” Bowman asked. “It might be possible for it to be paid out over five or 10 or 20 years. You could take that $333,000 and break it up into monthly checks over X amount of time. There are creative ways to do the right thing and do what needs to be done.”

He claimed that the government could distribute reparations similarly to the way it provided financial assistance during the COVID lockdowns.

"When COVID was destroying us, we invested in the American people in a way that kept the economy afloat," Bowman stated. "The government can invest the same way in reparations without raising taxes on anyone."

"Where did the money come from?" Bowman questioned. "We spent it into existence."

Bowman, who was recently criticized after he claimed he accidentally pulled the fire alarm in a House office building in October, said he also believes that incarcerated individuals “should be able to vote.”

“And I definitely think that when they come out, they should automatically be enfranchised,” he added.

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!