11/21/2010
Via Dan Riehl, I see that Michele Bachmann is saying that "Congress Should Investigate Pigford Before Funding It" with an illustration of money rolling off the printing press.
In September, I joined my colleagues Congressmen Steve King (IA-05) and Bob Goodlatte (VA-06) to call for a full investigation into the Pigford Settlement Case. As a constant advocate for careful use of taxpayer dollars, I was concerned when I learned that this Settlement has 94,000 claims of discrimination, even though only approximately 33,000 black farmers exist in the United States. I’m disappointed in the Senate’s decision to disregard these serious allegations and instead vote to spend away billions of taxpayer dollars.
The Pigford settlement is part of a class action that said that the Federal Government, in the shape of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, was discriminating against black farmers. I’m aware that such discrimination existed at the state and county levels in the South, before the age of civil rights, but even under FDR, the Federal Government was neutral on race. Since the Johnson Administration, the official policy of the federal government has been to discriminate in favor of blacks. (Sandra Day O'Connor said in 2003 that this would continue for at least another 25 years.) We've been covering Pigford here since 2006:
Oh, and see also Pigford v. Glickman: 86,000 claims from 39,697 total farmers?, PajamasMedia.com, July 27, 2010.
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