Biden really jumped on stats from the pandemic to point out that the ethnic groups – who had the best unemployment number in history pre-pandemic, are now the hardest hit by the pandemic. Most of us realize that, as those groups have predominantly occupied service-oriented jobs that were particularly impacted by shutdowns.
OMG this plan is long and verbose. 38 copied pages, 13,000+ words in MS Word. So, I’ll focus on the main points, which are funded off an at least a $3T package ($300B+ for minority business development, another $400B+ in gov’t spending on union-produced goods that he acknowledges will be more expensive, and another $2T for minority-community focused infrastructure rebuild). AND – that number does NOT include the Elizabeth Warren shout out for the student loan forgiveness AND free college for every whose family makes under $125K. That cost ISN’T disclosed….
- Fund small minority-owned businesses on the backside of Covid, ensure PE funding goes to racism-suffered areas, double the available capital loaned to underserved areas, require gov’t contractors to use a quota of minority subcontractors, increase the gov’t contract award preference toward minority businesses, and force companies over $1B in revenue and any with gov’t contracts to disclose racial makeup of workforce and partners.
- Target ALL relief funding specifically toward “black and brown” owned businesses. I have a problem with this, if we are trying to eliminate racial boundaries; it should go both ways.
- Expand the Community Reinvestment Act – including mandated high-risk mortgages. We did this once with Clinton, which fueled/caused the subprime mortgage crisis and financial collapse. Biden will give a $15,000 tax credit for down-payments or similar tax credits for flipping distressed homes. All paid in advance.
- Go after discriminatory lending practices. The burden of proof was very, very low under Obama and Trump wants to raise it a bit. There is room in the middle on this one – but a return to Obama’s regs is not good fiscal policy. Biden also wants to return to federal risk-sharing on housing lending.
- Provide free biz dev programs in 1,000 Community Colleges, and create small business incubators.
- Gov’t will run our credit score and change how it’s calculated (now to adjust for minority consideration), and force banks to accept it.
- Reform Opportunity Zones – which were created by Trump and are actually working well. He claims that *some* zone funds are being used for high-return projects; he is also wanting positive environmental impact projects.
- Protect Native Arts and Crafts from fakes. Okay. Last Navaho stand I visited – THEY bought Chinese knock-offs to sell.
- Force a rent and utility reduction for section 8 housing, to no more than 30% of a given renter’s income. He will help tenants fight eviction – with a shout out to Sen Bennett (D-CO) for that idea.
- Criminal justice: Guaranteed housing for all those released, eliminate bail, and increase mental health and substance abuse help. The bail idea is frankly stupid. Housing is questionable.
- Ensure racial diversity in all leadership in government. I look no further than state governments that have embarked on this to see what a disaster it has yielded. Leadership should be based on qualifications, period. We invest to make more diverse people qualified – then balance leadership ranks, not vice versa.
- Build more childcare facilities, including in the workplace, and allow those caregivers to unionize.
- Encourage more black and brown farmers, including assistance in buying farms, and helping immigrant farm labor (regardless of legal status) access to legal status, sick leave, overtime, etc.
Some ideas here I like (e.g., incubators, and business development assistance). Quotas I have seen be absolutely devastating for a variety of reasons. I favor investing on the front end of the process, but not on forcing quotas and actually discriminating against the majority of the population as a result.
Most of his proposed policies are nice on the surface, but I see a great deal of expanded reverse-discrimination efforts as opposed to balanced initiatives. I see a series of faulty assumptions that play on emotions of voters; he tells the story of wage disparity, for instance, like it’s new and worsening, when in fact it has been steadily improving for the last 4 years (and even before Trump). But what I am alarmed by are the costs he will wrap up. Obama burned through almost $10T in government programs that were fiscally disastrous, no matter how you look at it. Biden will probably expand that by at least 50%, just in the loans and the education expenses alone.
