It's enough to bring tears to your eyes. Or at least it is you happen to be San Jose Democratic Assemblyman Ash Kalra, a member of the California legislature. The subject being addressed this week in the Assembly Committee on Judiciary was reparations, specifically the creation of a "Fund for Reparations and Reparative Justice." The bill, SB 1331, has been estimated to cost as much as $800 billion (with a "B") if it's implemented. One Republican Assemblywoman had the audacity to raise objections to the proposal, pointing out that the staggering figure would be destructive to a state that is already facing billion-dollar deficits in its annual budget. Those objections caused Kalra to choke up when he insisted that the costs were justified. He proceeded to deliver a speech that was long on emotion, but noticeably short of common sense. (Fox News)

A California Democrat held back tears earlier this month when a Republican lawmaker said it would be unfair to make Asians and Latinos pay slavery reparations to African-Americans.

The exchange happened on June 11 during a meeting of the California Assembly Committee on Judiciary. The lawmakers were discussing SB 1331, a bill that would establish the "Fund for Reparations and Reparative Justice" in the state treasury — the culmination of a monthslong initiative by California Democrats to develop a reparation proposal for descendants of American slaves.

"I’m concerned about the proposal to help facilitate distribution of reparations," Assemblywoman Kate Sanchez, a Republican from Santa Margarita, said during the hearing.

The objections raised by Assemblywoman Kate Sanchez were probably some of the most common-sense words heard in the halls of California's legislature in ages. She cited the estimated costs involved and pointed out that it added up to an amount more than two and a half times the size of the entire state budget. She said that paying that sort of money would require a tax increase "unlike anything this state has ever seen before." She went on to note that there was indeed a sad history for minorities in California, but wisely reminded everyone that, "the pains of the past should not be paid by the people of today."

Sanchez twisted the knife a bit further by reminding the committee that more than half of the population of the state is either Hispanic or Asian. (Sanchez herself is Hispanic.) She pointed out that those families had nothing to do with slavery, discrimination, or Jim Crow laws. Because of that, it would be "fundamentally unfair to force these people to pay for this."

Ash Kalra was having none of it. He argued that the reparations would not be paid in a single balloon payment. That's when he tearfully began talking about generations of Black Californians who were "robbed of their wealth," enslaved, and placed into generations of poverty. 

Of course, there are a number of problems with the claims being made in that speech. First of all, California was admitted to the Union in 1850 as a free state. There was some slavery taking place prior to that, but it was never an official state or territorial policy. It's obviously true that many (though not all) Black families in the state existed in unfavorable economic conditions, but that was true almost everywhere. Further, how can you possibly ask the Asians to pay for all of this? The early Chinese immigrants arriving in California were, if anything, treated every bit as poorly as the Black settlers. 

Pulling back the lens a bit further, someone should remind the legislature that all of the events being discussed unfolded well over a century and a half ago. There is not a single person alive today who was involved on either side of those activities. Now you want the rest of the state to suddenly pony up that massive amount of cash and hand it out to people who have never been enslaved? The entire proposition is nonsensical and is likely being discussed as little more than an exercise in virtue signaling. The state doesn't have anywhere near that sort of money lying around to simply give away to people and the legislature knows it.