Former Vice President Joe Biden announced a series of policies Tuesday that aim to address massive economic racial disparities in the country.
In his plan, the alleged Democratic presidential candidate is pushing for increased financing for low-income housing, capital increases for minority-owned small businesses, and increased infrastructure spending targeting black communities.
BIDEN PRESENTS A $ 2 TRILLION PLAN TO FIGHT CLIMATE CHANGE AND INCREASE INFRASTRUCTURE
Biden will formally unveil his plan Tuesday afternoon during a speech in his hometown of Wilmington, Del.
“To address the racial wealth gap, the opportunity gap, and the job gap for blacks and browns, Biden will launch a landmark effort to empower the creation and expansion of small businesses in economically disadvantaged areas,” states a Biden campaign document. published before the ex-vice president’s speech.
The plan is the fourth in a series of “Build Back Better” policy launches that Biden has delivered over the past month to explain his agenda to restart a national economy that was crushed earlier this year when the coronavirus pandemic swept through the country. The implementation of the policy is ahead of next month’s Democratic National Convention, when Biden will be formally nominated as the standard-bearer for his party.
“Black and Latino people are three times more likely to be infected, and twice as likely to die from the virus as white people,” Biden said in his speech, according to excerpts published by his campaign.
“Almost 18 million people are out of work. Black unemployment is 15%, Latino employment is 14.5%. More than 40% of black-owned companies – 440,000 in total had to close,” Biden said.
The former vice president’s economic deployments also came amid two months of national unrest and protests, over police brutality towards minorities and the nation’s history of systemic racism, triggered by the death in May of George Floyd, a black man who died while in police custody
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Biden’s aides told reporters that the former vice president’s latest plan does not include any new spending proposals, but rather specifies how the money from his previous plans should go to minority communities, businesses and households. And the campaign added that the latest proposals are the final plank of Biden’s economic plans.
Biden’s first plan focused on increasing American manufacturing with American purchase proposals, which would compete with President Trump’s “America First” platform that helped him win the White House four years ago. The other economic stages of Biden’s plans include tackling climate change with a transition to a carbon-free energy sector, repairing the nation’s infrastructure, and helping families struggling to care for their children and aging parents due to coronavirus strains.
The proposals unveiled Tuesday would boost more than $ 50 billion in new equity and venture capital investments for entrepreneurs in economically disadvantaged areas.
“Black and brown entrepreneurs face unique barriers to getting the capital they need to start and grow a business. For example, three-quarters of venture capital goes to just four cities, and very few flows to businesses owned by black and brown people, “Biden’s campaign noted.
The campaign also highlighted that Biden would target additional $ 100 billion in financing for minority-owned small businesses, improve infrastructure and job opportunities in black and brown communities, and urge the Federal Reserve to take on a larger role. important in reducing race income disparities.
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Aides said that if elected, Biden would propose a bill that would expand the central bank’s current mandate to contain inflation and maintain full employment to also include the Fed using its powers to close “racial economic gaps.”
Biden is also asking to give those convicted of a crime a second chance at economic success so that they can fully reintegrate into society by earning a living. The campaign says Biden would do this “by helping states modernize their criminal justice data infrastructure and adopt automatic record sealing for selected categories of nonviolent crime, to modernize their criminal justice data infrastructure.”
