Thread by @michaelharriot

I'm kinda upset that Marcia Fudge won't be the Agriculture Secretary.

There are hundreds of my former students reading this right now and rolling their eyes because I've been pushing a theory on a loophole for reparations & the racial wealth gap for 20+ years:

A thread:

First of all, MOST of our tax dollars are sent to 2 places:

Killing people
Keeping people alive
Welfare

Defense and Veterans Affairs have the biggest budgets of any cabinet department Social Security and Medicare cost a ton of money.

And then there's welfare.

I know that you think I'm talking about food stamps, etc. But we spend a LOT of money on another form of welfare.

Don't worry, I already have a name for it:

Wypipo Welfare

There are whole budgetary set-asides that, historically, are used to help white people almost exclusively

Now the first is in Housing and Urban Development.

Because the word "urban" is a euphemism for "negro," a lot of people assume this people helps black people get housing.

Nah, bruh. It's for white people.

Now there are 2 ways they do this:

1. Government-backed loans: The FHA (which is part of HUD) doesn't give out money. They essentially tell banks: If you loan this person money and they don't pay it back, we got you."

Because interest rates are a reflection of the bank's risk, FHA borrowers have lower rates.

So, people who get FHA loans get a better deal. They can pay off their homes quicker and even if they don't, they have MORE EQUITY in their homes to borrow against.

And since home ownership is the largest determinant of wealth in America...

People who get government-backed loans are RICHER.

Now, before I show you this, let me remind you that the ENTIRE PURPOSE of the FHA is to establish economic stability for those who need it. It is a good idea for the gov't to do this.

So who gets these loans?

Non-Hispanic whites are 60% of the population but are OVERREPRESENTED in gov't backed home loans

Again, homes are the ONE THING that determines wealth more than any other.

Mortgages are an ESPECIALLY "important source of credit" for credit agencies.

This is welfare.

But that's not the only thing HUD does. Aside from housing, how does it "develop" these "urban" communities?

Business loans.

They back loans for businesses and give out "community development grants.

And who receives those?

I have no idea.

Under Obama, HUD had to report these disparities, but Trump has been working HARD to eliminate the rule.
Honestly, this issue is hard to explain in a manner that interests the people it affects. For my money, no one does it like @SACrockettJr
theroot.com/trump-is-looki…

And he's been screaming about it for a while.
theroot.com/hud-secretary-…

But there;s an indication of who gets HUD loans. For instance, Sean Hannity earns $36 million a year on the onlyfans channel for racists

HOW THE FUCK DID HE GET $17.9 MILLION IN GOVERNMENT-BACKED LOANS?

That question is rhetorical.

It's WYPIPO WELFARE

theroot.com/the-sean-hanni…

And the money he got to buy INVESTMENT PROPERTY is set aside for people who build low-income housing.

But if you don't have to prove who lives there, and who it impact, it's just welfare.

Now, I say all of this to show you that there are wealth building mechanisms that are not available to people who don't jog in place at stoplights

But HUD and FHA don't have SHIT on the KING of government handouts to white people:

The U.S. Dept. of Agriculture.

Remember all that stuff I said about HUD?

The USDA's budget is FIVE TIMES HUD's budget.

If you're Black and need housing, HUD will recommend the projects if you're "urban" and if you're black and need assistance in rural America, USDA will give you some food stamps.

Now, if you're white, you get a different form of wypipo welfare:

Ownership.

To understand how this work, it requires a quick history lesson:

The government gave white people land.

Thats it.

In the New Deal, the government gave farmland to whites and taught them how to farm

Some of these were government-backed loans, some were just straight-up handouts. Blacks were excluded. They got jobs digging ditches and working on roades, etc but not LAND.

So when you see set-asides for midwest farmers, know that this means "white people."

End of lesson.

But the government just didn't give whites this land and education, they set up an entire separate system for white farmers under the USDA.

Remember all that stuff I just said about HUD & the FHA? That wasn't just for comparison.

The USDA makes it RAIN on these farm hoes

There is literally a network of banks that offer loans for white farmers.

It's called the Farm Credit System.

Of course, farmers are important, right? They provide food and stuff.

Is Cracker Barrell a farm? When was the last time you visited the home-spun Verizon ranch? How about the TV producer's 6,500-foot mansion with a copper fireplace, guest house & equestrian center that was paid for by a Farm Credit Bank?

Also, a farm is just a goddamned business!

WHy do farmers get a whole separate financial system paid for with OUR money?

But that ain't the worst part.

See, there are some black farmers. ANd these farmers EARNED THEIR LAND.

But the USDA doesn't give AF about them.

By the way, that's not an opinion.

Actually, that IS an opinion... A court opinion

In 1999, black farmers won a lawsuit against the department charging that they had discriminated against black farmers for years. In 2010, Barack Obama signed legislation ordering a payout of more than $1.2 billion.

Yes! We won!

But the USDA refused to pay. That's how powerful the USDA is—it can overrule a judge. Their conduct was so egregious, when they went back to court, the judge said: "I had no idea how poorly you treated Black farmers! You know what? Make it $2 Billion!

"Now run them their money!"

But white people still get the most welfare. They get the most Food stamps (It's run by the USDA remember). And when Trump was messing up the economy with tariffs, guess who got stimulus checks WAY before the coronavirus hit?

Wypipo welfare recipients.

theroot.com/trump-seeks-to…

In fact, you know that Georgia Senate race everyone is talking about? Guess whose family benefitted the most from government handouts and "so-shullizm?"

The woman who's literally the richest person in the Senate.

So what does this have to do with reparations and the wealth gap?

Well, I'm finna show you something:

There's also another department tucked away in the USDA.

It's called the Economics Research Service. It originally was supposed to do research on crops and agriculture, but it can literally research anything having to do with economics.

Under Obama, the ERS had about 400 employees, but now it's down to about 100 (or maybe less):

Why?

Because Trump doesn't like that "research" stuff. The ERS be reporting facts and shit. He literally made them issue a disclaimer saying their research might not be true.

So damn near the entire government department said "fuck this" and quit.

Again, the ERS mandate doesn't require it to research agriculture. That's why its the ECONOMIC research service.

Now, what about this reparations stuff?

Well, for more than two decades, a few Black representatives have been trying to pass a bill called H.R. 40: It essentially wants to study how the economic and social implications of slavery could be repaired through reparations.

All it does is want to STUDY the issue.

Because, as you know, the government doesn't usually allocate resources without a study (Except when they gave that land, those loans, those mortgages and those grants to white people. But, you know...)

Now, the ERS budget last year was $85 million. But, because everyone left, and it was relocated, the Biden administration will probably have to rebuild it.

Again, there's NO LIMIT on what they can study. They have a budget, no employees & will basically start from scratch

Why couldn't the Secretary of Agriculture just say:

"We're gonna study this?"

That was a rhetorical question. I already know the answer. There is no legal, ethical or constitutional reason. In fact, that's the entire purpose of Cabinet secretaries

And there's literally nothing Congress or the Senate Republicans could do about it except to refuse funding for it.

Except they DON'T NEED FUNDING. They are actually OVERFUNDED.

But what kind of framework could they use?

As an actual economist, you should know that to even approach such a vast economic project, you'd have to base the modeling on existing data. How would you measure the economic impact? No group this large LARGE in America has ever received this much government assistance.

Except there is an existing model on which a person could base this.

It funds businesses, it shows how loans, grants, credit & housing can lift people out of poverty. It spans rural & urban communities. It even shows how reparations can build financial stability for GENERATIONS

It's called the US Department of Agriculture.

It's not hard. There's no financial issue. There is intergenerational proof that it could work>

There's only one real problem with my hair-brained scheme:

Someone is gonna have to explain to all these privileged white people that bootstraps, the American dream or "rugged individualism" didn't get them where they are.

They've been on Wypipo Welfare this whole time.