Black leaders see politics at play in Maryland governor's reparations veto
BALTIMORE — Maryland Gov. Wes Moore's veto of a bill related to reparations payments for the descendants of slaves has raised eyebrows among some Black leaders in Baltimore.
Moore vetoed Senate Bill 587 on May 16, which would have launched a two-year study into whether the state should provide reparations to those affected by the state's history of slavery and inequality. In a letter explaining the veto, Maryland's first Black governor wrote that he supports the work of the proponents but does not believe it's the right 'time for another study.'
Rev. Dr. Robert Turner, senior pastor at Baltimore's Empowerment Temple African Methodist Episcopal Church, said his initial reaction to the veto was 'great disappointment.' Members of his congregation have 'been praying their whole lives' for some way to address historic injustices, Turner told The Baltimore Sun.
Turner, who led marches calling on President Joe Biden to sign an executive order establishing a federal reparations commission, views the study as a necessary step to securing 'repair' for Black communities. and used food analogies to make this point. He said acting on reparations with the foresight of studies versus without them is the 'difference between going to the grocery store knowing what you want to make or going to the grocery store just because.'
'By having a [study] commission, you're really trying to see what the people you're serving are starving from,' Turner said. 'What is it that they need to eat versus what you want them to eat?'
The reverend believes any reparations study must be clearly aimed at addressing 'harm-based remedies,' as the Supreme Court's 2023 ruling in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard found most affirmative action programs to be unconstitutional.
'Because of the Supreme Court case with affirmative action, you can't have race-based remedies anymore,' Turner said. 'But you can have harm-based remedies, and the commission is best designed to develop a study to present harm-based remedies.'
Dayvon Love, public policy director of Baltimore-based grassroots advocacy group Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle, said that at the beginning of 2025, he would have been 'surprised' by Moore vetoing a reparations study bill. But during meetings with Moore during this year's legislative session, Love told The Baltimore Sun he became convinced that 'the governor's office was trying to kill the bill.'
'I was very candid that it is my belief that the triangulation on the issue of reparations is a political calculation based on the fact that reparations is extremely unpopular amongst white folks. The veto in some ways, confirmed some of my suspicions,' Love said.
Love pointed to a 2022 Pew Research poll that found, while 77% of Black Americans support reparations for the descendants of slaves, just 18% of white Americans said the same. He suggested strong actions on reparations would jeopardize Moore's 'political brand' as a leader who is 'palatable to the white mainstream.'
'For the letter to say he wants to act now, that doesn't square with the fact that I know my organization presented actual policy prescriptions and we were told that they weren't inclined to move on them,' Love said. 'I think, to be honest, he does not want to be associated with the radical Black nationalist movements [from] which the reparations demand emerges.'
Anson Asaka, senior associate general counsel at the NAACP, expressed disappointment with Moore's veto and called on the Maryland General Assembly to override it.
'I hope that the Maryland Legislature overrides his veto,' Asaka wrote on Facebook. 'It is sad to see the Governor disregard his base to tap dancing for [those] who are never going to support him.'
Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott did not address Moore's veto directly or call on General Assembly Democrats to override it, but he did express a desire to see reparations discussed at the federal level.
'Anybody that doesn't understand that African Americans in this country are owed a lot… sh ould really have a deeper thought,' Scott said during his May 21 news conference.
Green Party gubernatorial candidate Andy Ellis, who is white, has made reparations for Black citizens a key component of his platform. Ellis previously suggested Moore 'hoped' he never had to take a strong position on reparations so he wouldn't become politically burdened by the issue if he runs for president in 2028 — an ambition the governor has publicly denied.
'If he's serious, let him step off the national TV circuit and debate real solutions right here in Maryland,' Ellis said of Moore in a statement. 'The clock is ticking on reparations, climate justice, data centers and energy security, and Maryland deserves leadership, not excuses.'
The reparations veto also compelled a South Carolina lawmaker, state Rep. John King, to call for Moore to be disinvited from Blue Palmetto Dinner — the governor will be the event's keynote speaker on Friday, May 30. The dinner is a frequent stop for Democratic presidential candidates given the early timing of South Carolina's primary elections and the large Black voter base in the state.
'We must make it clear that symbolism without substance is no longer acceptable,' King wrote in an open letter to the South Carolina Democratic Party. 'Representation means nothing if it does not come with a commitment to repair the harms inflicted by systemic racism and slavery.'
Dr. Alvin C. Hathaway Sr., pastor emeritus at Union Baptist Church, said that Moore 'proverbially grabbed the bull by the horns' by vetoing the reparations package but still agreeing that a 'debt is owed,' referencing Black Americans who contributed to 'the early stages of the B&O Railroad and started the Industrial Revolution.'
Hathaway urged Moore to specify how to address the different disparities that Black Americans in Maryland face.
'All eyes are on him,' he said. 'Not only here locally within the city of Baltimore, the state of Maryland, but nationally, as the only African American governor. What are the actions you're going to take for what we know has been a historic wrong? So to me, there's no wiggle room.'
--------------
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Hill
6 minutes ago
- The Hill
Collins opposed to PEPFAR, global health rescissions proposed by Trump
Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins (R-Maine) said Wednesday that she is opposed to a Trump White House proposal that would claw back money Congress has already appropriated for global health programs, including the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). 'I do not support the rescission for PEPFAR and global health programs,' Collins told reporters as she walked into a meeting in the Capitol on Wednesday afternoon. The White House on Tuesday sent lawmakers a request to rescind $9.4 billion in funding for foreign aid and public broadcasting, which were targeted for cuts by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Congress needs to approve the rescissions package to codify the DOGE cuts. The package would cut nearly $9 million from PEPFAR and $400 million from global programs intended to control the spread of HIV/AIDS. Congress has 45 days to act on the package, which will be considered on a procedural fast-track in the Senate, allowing it to pass the upper chamber with a simple majority vote. Collins in a statement Tuesday said the Appropriations Committee 'will carefully review the rescissions package and examine the potential consequences of these rescissions on global health, national security, national security' and other congressional priorities.
Chicago Tribune
7 minutes ago
- Chicago Tribune
President Donald Trump tax bill will add $2.4 trillion to the deficit and leave 10.9 million more uninsured, CBO says
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump's big bill making its way through Congress will cut taxes by $3.75 trillion but also increase deficits by $2.4 trillion over the next decade, according to an analysis released Wednesday by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. The CBO also estimates an increase of 10.9 million people without health insurance under the bill by 2034, including 1.4 million who are in the United States without legal status in state-funded programs. The package would reduce federal outlays, or spending, by nearly $1.3 trillion over that period, the budget office said. What is the CBO? A look at the small office inflaming debate over Trump's tax bill'In the words of Elon Musk, this bill is a 'disgusting abomination,'' said Rep. Brendan Boyle of Pennsylvania, the top Democrat on the House Budget Committee, reviving the billionaire former Trump aide's criticism of the package. House Speaker Mike Johnson said he called Musk late Tuesday to discuss the criticism but had not heard back. 'I hope he comes around,' Johnson told reporters. The analysis comes at a crucial moment in the legislative process as Trump is pushing Congress to have the final product on his desk to sign into law by the Fourth of July. The work of the CBO, which for decades has served as the official scorekeeper of legislation in Congress, will be weighed by lawmakers and others seeking to understand the budgetary impacts of the sprawling 1,000-page-plus package. Ahead of the CBO's release, the White House and Republican leaders criticized the budget office in a preemptive campaign designed to sow doubt in its findings. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the CBO has been 'historically wrong,' and Senate Majority Leader John Thune said the CBO was 'flat wrong' because it underestimated the potential revenue growth from Trump's first round of tax breaks in 2017. The CBO last year said receipts were $1.5 trillion, or 5.6% greater than predicted, in large part because of the 'burst of high inflation' during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021. White House Budget Director Russ Vought said when you adjust for 'current policy' — which means not counting some $4.5 trillion in existing tax breaks that are simply being extended for the next decade — the overall package actually doesn't pile onto the deficit. He argued the spending cuts alone in fact help reduce deficits by $1.4 trillion over the decade. Democrats and even some Republicans call that 'current policy' accounting move a gimmick, but it's the approach Senate Republicans intend to use during their consideration of the package to try to show it does not add to the nation's deficits. Vought argued that the CBO is the one using a 'gimmick' by tallying the costs of continuing those tax breaks that would otherwise expire. Leavitt also suggested that the CBO's employees are biased, even though certain budget office workers face strict ethical rules — including restrictions on campaign donations and political activity — to ensure objectivity and impartiality. 'When it comes time to make prognostications on economic growth, they've always been wrong,' House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., said at a press conference. Asked if it's time to get rid of the CBO, Scalise did not dismiss the idea, saying it's valid to raise concerns. Alongside the costs of the bill, the CBO had previously estimated that nearly 4 million fewer people would have food stamps each month due to the legislation's proposed changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as SNAP. The bill, called the One Big Beautiful Bill Act after the president's own catch phrase, is grinding its way through Congress, as the top priority of Republicans, who control both the House and the Senate — and face stiff opposition from Democrats, who call it Trump's 'big, ugly bill.' All told, the package seeks to extend the individual income tax breaks that had been approved in 2017 but that will expire in December if Congress fails to act, while adding new ones, including no taxes on tips. It also includes a massive buildup of $350 billion for border security, deportations and national security. To help cover the lost revenue, Republicans want to slash some federal spending. They propose phasing out green energy tax breaks put in place during Democrat Joe Biden's presidency. New work requirements for some adults up to age 65 on Medicaid and SNAP would begin in December 2026 and are expected to result in less spending on those programs. Republicans argue their proposals are intended to make Medicaid and other programs stronger by rooting out waste, fraud and abuse. They want the federal funding to go those who most need health care and other services, often citing women and children. But Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said those claims are bogus and are simply part of long-running GOP efforts to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, as most states have expanded Medicaid to serve more people under the program. 'They just want to strangle health care,' Schumer said. The package also would provide a $4 trillion increase to the nation's debt limit, which is now $36 trillion, to allow more borrowing. The Treasury Department projects the debt limit will need to be raised this summer to pay the nation's already accrued bills. Now in its 50th year, the CBO was established by law after Congress sought to assert its control, as outlined in the Constitution, over the budget process, in part by setting up the new office as an alternative to the White House's Office of Management and Budget. Staffed by some 275 economists, analysts and other employees, the CBO says it seeks to provide Congress with objective, impartial information about budgetary and economic issues. Its current director, Phillip Swagel, a former Treasury official in Republican President George W. Bush's administration, was reappointed to a four-year term in 2023.
Epoch Times
10 minutes ago
- Epoch Times
Dollar Tree Sales Rise, Views Economic Uncertainty as Opportunity
Dollar Tree has joined its competitor, Dollar General, in posting higher sales for the first quarter of fiscal 2025, as it views the economic uncertainty surrounding retailing as a growth opportunity for value dollar stores. On June 4, the Chesapeake, Virginia-based operator of discount stores in the United States and Canada
