Biden unveils plan aiming to tackle racial economic inequality

Former Vice President Joe Biden announced a series of policies on Tuesday that aim to address the massive racial economic disparities in the country.

In his plan, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee is pushing for a surge in funding for low-income housing, increases in capital for minority-owned small businesses, and greater infrastructure spending directed towards Black communities.

BIDEN UNVEILS $2 TRILLION PLAN TO COMBAT CLIMATE CHANGE, BOOST 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 jobs gap for Black and Brown people, Biden will launch a historic effort to empower small business creation and expansion in economically disadvantaged areas,” states a Biden campaign document released ahead of the former vice president’s address.

The plan is the fourth in a series of policy rollouts titled “Build Back Better” that Biden has delivered over the past month to spell out his agenda to restart a national economy that was flattened earlier this year as the coronavirus pandemic swept the country. The policy rollouts come ahead of next month’s Democratic National Convention, when Biden will formally be nominated as his party’s standard-bearer.

"Black and Latino people have been three times as likely to be infected — and two times as likely to die from the virus as white people," Biden will say in his speech, according to excerpts released by his campaign.
 
"Nearly 18 Million people are out of work. Black unemployment is at 15%, Latino employment is at 14.5%. Over 40% of black-owned businesses — 440,000 in total reportedly had to shut down," Biden will stress.

The former vice president’s economic rollouts also come amid two months of national unrest and protests--on police brutality toward minorities and the nation’s history of systemic racism-- which were sparked by the death in May of George Floyd, a Black man who died while in police custody.

THE PRICE TAG FOR BIDEN'S PLANS TO 'BUILD BACK BETTER'

Biden aides told reporters that the former vice president’s latest plan doesn’t include any new spending proposals – but rather specifies how money from his earlier plans should be targeted 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 surging American manufacturing with buy-American proposals, which would compete with President Trump’s “America First” platform that helped him win the White House four years ago. The other economic legs of Biden’s plans include combating 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 elderly parents due to the strains of the coronavirus.

The proposals revealed on Tuesday would push more than $50 billion in new equity investments and venture capital for entrepreneurs in economically disadvantaged areas.

“Black and Brown entrepreneurs face unique barriers to obtaining the capital that they need to start and grow a business. For example, three-fourths of venture capital goes to just four cities – and far too little flows to businesses owned by Black and Brown people,” the Biden campaign noted.

The campaign also spotlighted that Biden would aim to leverage $100 billion in additional financing for small minority-owned businesses,  would upgrade the infrastructure and job opportunities in Black and Brown communities, and urge the Federal Reserve to take on a bigger role in reducing the racial income disparities.

THE BIDEN-TRUMP BATTLE WITH LESS THAN 100 DAYS UNTIL THE NOVEMBER ELECTION

Aides said if elected, Biden would propose a bill that would broaden the current mandate of the central bank to contain inflation and maintain full employment to also include having the Fed to use its powers to close "racial economic gaps."

Biden is also calling for giving those convicted of a crime a second chance for economic success so they can fully reintegrate into society by earning a good living. The campaign says Biden would do this “by helping states modernize their criminal justice data infrastructure and adopt automated record sealing for selected categories of non-violent offenses, to modernize their criminal justice data infrastructure.”