White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki was asked recently if President Joe Biden supports the House Democrats’ pro-reparations bill, HR 40. Psaki didn’t really answer the question, but she did note that the bill would provide funding for a reparations commission as “the next important step forward and something that [Biden] feels would be absolutely correct in addressing this moment in history.” She then added, “I don’t have more of an assessment of the legislation.” Call it a tepid endorsement for President Unity.

Proponents of reparations — forcing U.S. taxpayers to pay black Americans simply for being the presumed descendants of black slaves — have been pushing Biden to come out in full support for the dubious effort to redistribute wealth. Biden seemingly had a perfect opportunity earlier last week during his speech in Tulsa, Oklahoma, at the 100 year anniversary of the race massacre there, to give his support for reparations. Yet he avoided any mention of the idea.

The likely reason is that Team Biden knows that the inherently divisive issue of reparations is widely unpopular with the American people. As National Review’s Charles Cooke contends, “Reparations are political suicide, and Joe Biden knows it.” And Politico reports, “Biden privately tells lawmakers not to expect much on reparations legislation.”

Meanwhile, Columbia University English Professor John McWhorter argues that reparations to black American descendants of slaves have and are already being paid. McWhorter pointedly noted, “Affirmative action was reparations. People didn’t use that word, but that’s precisely what it was. The Community Reinvestment Act of 1977 that forced banks to invest in inner cities … that was reparations,” but “nobody makes a movie about that.” The list of such federal programs is actually quite lengthy.

Indeed, LBJ’s War on Poverty and “Great Society” were designed around the concept of reparations. Unfortunately, these massive entitlements did little other than create a permanent class of folks dependent on the government. We call it the Democrats’ Poverty Plantation. Likewise, the current push for reparations is nothing more than a ploy to ensure that black Americans remain forever dependent on Democrats.