By Melissa Koenig | New York Post
A Democratic congresswoman is calling for black Americans to be exempt from paying taxes as a form of reparations — though she admitted that the plan may not work because many poorer black people “aren’t really paying taxes in the first place.”
Jasmine Crockett, a freshman representative from Texas, said she heard a celebrity — though she could not remember which one — propose making black people tax-exempt, and thought, “I don’t know that that’s … necessarily a bad idea,” she recounted in an interview with “The Black Lawyers Podcast” last week.
“One of the things they propose is black folk not have to pay taxes for a certain amount of time because … that puts money back in your pocket,” Crockett told host J. Carter.
“But at the same time, it may not be as objectionable to some people” as “actually giving out dollars,” she continued.
Crockett then argued that reparations in some form are necessary.
“So many black folk, not only do you owe for the labor that was stolen and killed and all the other things, but the fact is we end up being so far behind.”
It is at that point that she suggests one of the biggest problems with the proposal is that some black people already aren’t paying taxes.
“If you do the no-tax thing, for people that are already, say, struggling and not paying taxes in the first place —” she says, before Carter suggests they “may want those checks like they got from COVID” rather than a tax break.
“Exactly,” Crockett responds.
Earlier in the interview, Crockett argued there needs to be consistency between the federal and state governments on reparations, because if there is not, “everybody’s gonna run to whichever state and be like, ‘Yo, I need mine.’”
“And so we don’t want to see that — this is definitely something that needs to be thought through,” she told Carter.
She went on to slam “people that aren’t even willing to do the studies, aren’t willing to invest to make sure we can roll this out the right way.”
Crockett recently cruised through a Democratic primary in her Dallas district, securing 91.5% of the vote, according to the New York Times.
She is set to face libertarian candidate Ken Ashby in the race to retain her seat in November.
The Post has reached out to Crockett’s office for comment.
