Astute readers have noticed that there are no longer any living slaves in the United States, nor are there any living slave-owners. That has not, however, stopped Congressman John Conyers (D-MI) from introducing a “slavery reparations” bill every year since 1989. Leftist Conyers will soon become the Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, and will have the power to decide what bills get through his committee and make it to the floor of the House for a vote. Still, pushing a slavery reparations bill would be a steep uphill battle. Conyers may want white Americans to write black Americans fat personal checks as payback for the injustice of slavery, but he won’t get that - even if a President Obama has an aggressive and angry wife demanding it.

So what’s a President to do? Even an Obama-Pelosi-Reid triumvirate can’t overcome a nation of white voters marching on Washington to say, “If you dare to pass that bill, there won’t be a Democrat left in Washington!” The next best thing for Obama is therefore a “stealth slavery reparations program.” What exactly is his stealth program? Obama plans to pass “universal” programs that predominantly help the black population and are predominantly paid for by the white taxpayer. The words “slavery reparations” won’t appear anywhere in the text of the legislation, of course, but that will be the end result nevertheless.

The primary example is Obama’s “95 per cent tax cut” for all working families. First, it is not a tax cut – it is a tax credit. A tax cut is a reduction in the federal income taxes paid by a family or an individual. Obama’s tax credit allows him to send a check to every poor family even if they have no income tax liability. On April 15 they will get a check for $1,000 – even if they paid no income tax. A $1,000 check every April 15. Forever.

Granted, $1,000 does not seem like much, but it’s still $1,000 taken from taxpayers and given to the poor – year after year after year. And you can bet that Obama will promise to increase that amount in time for the 2012 elections, and maybe even before the 2010 mid-term elections.

But why is Obama’s tax credit considered “slavery reparations?” Won’t some poor white people also get those $1,000 checks? Won’t some wealthy blacks be paying higher taxes to fund those checks? Yes, but that’s a small price for Obama to pay in order to achieve his goal of a massive redistribution of wealth from the haves to the have-nots and from the whites to the blacks. He knows he can’t get what he wants in one fell swoop, so he’ll get whatever he can whenever he can get it. If he pays off enough people in his first four years, he’ll have the votes for another four years, during which he can “fine-tune” his programs to his heart’s content. (That will include, of course, increasing the $1,000 rebate amount in time for the 2012 elections, or perhaps even the 2010 mid-terms.)  Once the parasites outnumber the producers at the ballot box, he can completely ignore the complaints of the smaller group.

What else is part of Obama’s “stealth” plan? Look for anything with the word “universal” in the name, such as his health plan. Who are those people without health insurance? Poor blacks, for the most part. Thus, a national, universal health plan allows Obama to again take wealth from whites, in the form of taxes, to give to descendants of slaves, in the form of free health insurance. It wouldn’t occur to Obama (or any other leftist) to cut federal spending and taxes in order to cause the economy to expand and thus create good-paying jobs with employer-provided group health insurance. To Obama, creating dependency on government is preferable to creating jobs.

Obama’s programs are ultimately not “help the poor” programs, they are “give to the poor” programs. They do nothing to help people get out of poverty, they work to keep them in poverty and dependent on government. Think “stealth slavery reparations” whenever you think of an Obama economic program, and you’ll probably be on safe ground.

Ah, if only President Andrew Johnson had gone ahead with the “40 acres and a mule” plan back in 1868, we wouldn’t be in this mess now.

Don Fredrick

November 5, 2008

Copyright 2008 Don Fredrick