Republican U.S. Senate candidate Alan Keyes assured conservatives Tuesday that despite his remark a day earlier that an argument can be made for providing reparations to slave descendants, he opposes any “effort to extort money damages from the American people.”
“The idea I have often put forward to address this challenge involves a traditionally Republican, conservative and market-oriented approach,” Keyes said in a statement issued by his campaign after aides said several conservatives called to express concern.
Keyes said his plan to exempt slave descendants from federal taxes rather than make reparations payments to them would “encourage business ownership, create jobs and support the development of strong economic foundations for working families.”
It “takes no money from other citizens while righting the historic balance that results from the truth that black slaves toiled for generations at a tax rate that was effectively 100 percent,” Keyes said.
“I have consistently opposed the effort to extort monetary damages from the American people,” he said.
At a news conference earlier Tuesday, a fired up Keyes discussed the debate over expanding O’Hare International Airport, an issue on which he has yet to take a stand, claiming the multibillion dollar issue is paralyzed by political corruption.
“It’s sort of like you’re sitting in a room and off in a corner of the room is a deeply smelly toad that is filling the room with a nasty odor,” Keyes said. “And everybody is holding their cocktails and wearing their ties and they’re not talking about this smelly toad, but the room is filled with the stink of it.”
“That stink is political corruption,” he said. “That stink is the willingness to undermine what needs to be done for the people so that you can serve your power interest and your political interest. And this stink is in everybody’s nostrils.”
O’Hare is beset by delays because of congestion, and federal officials are pushing Chicago to come up with a solution.
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From news services.
