A hearing on legislation that would finally provide financial restitution to black people whose families were enslaved in the United States turned hostile when racist Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) proposed that only Democrats should have to pay reparations.

The bill has been moving through Congress and appears to have support, except from Republicans of course.

And on Thursday, Gohmert first argued against the bill by bringing up the Bible and how children should not be punished for the sins of their parents.

“And yet, this is what this appears to do,” Gohmert said. “We don’t need to do more damage. We’re about $29 trillion on debt. We don’t have the money to be paying reparations. So, if there is an award of reparations to people that were not slaves by people who had no slaves, then it will be grandchildren form now that will punished and have to pay that price.”

Funny how Gohmert felt we could afford to give the wealthy trillions of dollars in tax cuts despite the debt but not black people whose families were never given reparations promised to them after the Civil War.

Then he tried to blame today’s Democratic Party for slavery because the then-conservative Democratic Party of the 19th century supported it.

“So if we’re gonna force this on anybody it ought to be the one party that has done so much damage, and that’s why I would submit this amendment — if we’re gonna punish children for the sins that even their parents didn’t do, then this ought to be the way to do it,” he said.

The problem with Gohmert’s blame game is that Democrats and Republicans shifted during the 1960s, with Democrats becoming the liberal champions for civil rights in northern states while Republicans became the conservative defenders of racism and discrimination in the South. Some Republicans have even defended slavery and support Confederate symbols and monuments.

Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.) pointed out that since Gohmert wants to play the blame game, the southern states are directly to blame for slavery and should be forced to pay the reparations, which is actually a really good idea.

“The amendment in question says that the Democratic Party should be held responsible, because it is the only relevant entity in existence today that supported the instruction of slavery,” Cohen said. “That’s absolutely false.”

Cohen named the state of Texas among other states that supported and fought for slavery as well as engaging in Jim Crow segregation that held black people down for generations.

“Those states had laws that supported slavery… so if you want to get down to this nitpicking, and say who should be responsible, it should be the southern states,” Cohen concluded.

Here’s the video via YouTube:

Gohmert made a huge mistake by calling for Democrats to pay the price of reparations, especially as southern states live off the government teat seeing as how they take it more federal dollars than they send in. It is long past time that southern states experience a reckoning over their past support for slavery. Therefore, those states alone should be forced to pay the reparations since Gohmert is so insistent on assigning blame.

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