In April 2013, Investor’s Business Daily reported the following:

Turns out conservative crusader Andrew Breitbart was correct when he exposed a multibillion-dollar redistribution scheme to African-American farmers based on largely dubious claims of discrimination.

If there’s a patron saint for government watchdogs, it’s Breitbart, who was well into exposing at the time of his early death one of the most egregious examples of wealth redistribution in the name of social justice: the Pigford case.

A handful of black farmers who arguably were discriminated against in their dealings with the Agriculture Department were exploited by a racial grievance industry empowered by a government and a president out to fundamentally transform America.

Outside Breitbart and his Big Government website, only a handful of outlets, among them IBD, pursued the story. Late to the story, but welcome, comes the New York Times with an analysis that Breitbart was right, that Pigford became not a redress of legitimate grievances but a “a runaway train, driven by racial politics, pressure from influential members of Congress and law firms that stand to gain more than $130 million in fees.”

The article notes:

Based on Census data reflecting the original period in question, the USDA first estimated only 2,000 claims would be filed. But in this age of victimhood and dependency fanned by demagoguery, “more than 90,000 people have filed claims” and the “total cost could top $4.4 billion,” noted the Times.

As BigGovernment.com reported, the only “proof” required was a form stating the claimant had “attempted” to farm, perhaps planting tomatoes in the backyard, and to have a family member vouch for that assertion.

The government would then send the aggrieved “farmer” a check for as much as $50,000.

Remember Shirley Sherrod, the former USDA official whose speech before an NAACP group revealing her angst about helping a white farmer got her fired?

Time magazine reported that $330,000 was “awarded to Shirley and Charles Sherrod for mental suffering alone,” in their claim against the USDA.

On September 26, 2022, The Daily Caller reported:

The Democrats’ massive climate spending and tax bill gave the Department of Agriculture (USDA) $2.2 billion in loans to pay farmers, many of whom are black, who have previously been denied USDA loans due to discrimination.

The provision, which was backed by Democratic Sens. Cory Booker of New Jersey and Raphael Warnock of Georgia, is intended to provide financial assistance to farmers, ranchers or forest landowners that the department determines to have experienced discrimination in USDA farm lending programs before January 1. 2021, according to the bill’s text. Although the funding could go to any farmer that the government has discriminated against, such as white women or members of the LGBTQ community, the money is primarily intended to rectify the historic denial of loans to black farmers, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Somehow I don’t believe that there were $2.2 billion in loans denied to black farmers (or anyone else). This is another attempt (unfortunately successful) to pay reparations and to redistribute money from people who earned it to people who didn’t.