‘Bold, practical investments’: Biden announces plans to boost black and Latino finances

Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, announced a plan on Tuesday to spend tens of billions of dollars to help people of colour overcome inequities in the economy, a move that comes amid financial and racial upheaval nationwide.

The plan calls for dedicating $30bn (£23bn) of previously proposed spending on a small business opportunity fund for black, brown and Native American entrepreneurs. Mr Biden also proposed tripling the goal for federal contracting with small disadvantaged businesses, from 5 per cent to at least 15 per cent of all spending on materials and services by 2025.

“We need to make bold, practical investments to recover from the economic mess we’re in and to rebuild for the economic future our country deserves,” Mr Biden said, adding that his plan would “deal with systemic racism and advance racial equity in our economy”.

The former vice president said he wants Donald Trump and Congress to create an emergency housing support programme, along with promoting a refundable tax credit of up to $15,000 (£11,571) to help families purchase their first homes.

The plan, outlined in a speech Mr Biden gave in Wilmington, Del., on Tuesday afternoon, came as race and the economy have taken a high profile in the presidential contest. The presidential contest has been rocked by protests in the wake of several killings of unarmed black people and by the coronavirus pandemic, which has hit communities of colour especially hard.

Mr Biden sharply criticised Mr Trump in his speech, not only for his economic performance but for sending federal officials into US cities in what Mr Biden described as an effort to divide the country for political purposes.

“He’s showing that he can’t beat the pandemic and keep you safe. He can’t turn the economy around,” said Mr Biden. “He is intentionally stoking the flames of division and racism in this country.”

Mr Biden added: “His campaign is failing, and he is looking for a political lifeline. This isn’t about law and order. It’s about a political strategy to revive a failing campaign.”

The economic plan marks Mr Biden’s latest attempt to make a major statement on racial issues, a topic on which he has faced blowback from activists during his campaign. At the same time, Mr Biden was propelled to victory in the Democratic primaries by strong support from black voters, driven largely by those older than 45, who have shown a great deal of loyalty to a man who served under the country’s first black president.

Tuesday’s proposal – covering topics from education to housing to retirement – builds on ideas Mr Biden has previously championed. “You will not see new dollar amounts” in the document, said a senior Biden campaign official.

The blueprint does not endorse slavery reparations, a move some black activists have advocated as a way to tackle economic and moral inequities. Asked on Tuesday whether Mr Biden would support a congressional study on reparations, the senior campaign official said: “The vice president doesn’t have a problem with a study.”

Tuesday’s speech reflects the duelling political pressures faced by Mr Biden. Mr Trump and his allies are eager to paint the Democrat as an extremist, seeking to tether him to ideas such as defunding the police, which Mr Biden has repeatedly said he does not support.

At the same time, Mr Biden’s history on issues of race has created some tensions with young activists of colour in the party who feel that he needs to prove himself more to win their enthusiasm.

The plan also says relatively little about police and criminal-justice reform, the focus of protests that have erupted nationwide, although it advocates “helping states modernise their criminal justice data infrastructure and adopt automated record-sealing” for some nonviolent crimes. The goal is to ease the process of sealing or expunging certain criminal records that hold people back from jobs or other opportunities.

Mr Trump has long argued that his economic policies, including cutting taxes and reducing regulations, have spurred historic job growth for all Americans, including blacks and Latinos. He asserts that African Americans have fared better under him than under any other president.

He made that point to Fox News last month, saying of the pre-coronavirus economy: “We had the best numbers for African Americans on employment and unemployment in history ... best everything.”

Mr Trump and his supporters also contend that Mr Biden’s economic plans amount to “socialism” that would damage the economy for everyone. Although the economy was jolted by the pandemic, Mr Trump argues that he is best positioned to rebuild it, saying he has done so once before.

But as the pandemic has continued, African American communities have sustained significant economic harm.

Mr Biden’s plan represents the fourth and final part of his “Build Back Better” economic recovery plan. It comes fewer than 100 days before the 3 November election, with the campaign ramping up its efforts to cement its advantage over Mr Trump in the polls.

Mr Biden has previously presented blueprints to spend $700bn (£540bn) on US products and research to jump-start the domestic economy, eliminate carbon pollution from power plants by 2035 and spend $2tn (£1.5tn) to spur the clean energy economy, and invest $775bn (£597.8bn) on helping to care for young and old Americans through universal preschool and other initiatives.

Mr Biden delivered his speech on a basketball court inside a recreation centre in his hometown of Wilmington. The campaign hung an American flag above the bleachers and put up a campaign poster. Journalists, people associated with the Biden campaign and invited guests were inside, with a few recreation centre employees wandering in and out.

Although the campaign has sketched out a few ways it plans to finance its plans, such as reversing some of Mr Trump’s tax cuts for corporations, it has yet to provide a complete picture of how it would pay for the ideas. A second senior Biden official said on Tuesday that there was “not a specific time frame” for when that would be released.

Both officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorised by the campaign to speak on the record.

Mr Biden’s decades-long record in politics – spanning periods of changing attitudes about race, criminal justice and policing – has prompted scepticism from some activists. They point most often to his advocacy for a 1994 crime law that critics have blamed for leading to the mass incarceration of black people. Mr Biden has also faced criticism for his past work with segregationist senators.

Mr Biden, who has at times become defensive about his record on race, has pledged to nominate a black woman to the Supreme Court if elected president. He has promised that his running mate will be a woman and recently said that four black women were under consideration for that job. On Tuesday, he suggested his selection would come in the first week of August.

Still, more than 50 liberal groups signed a letter to Mr Biden in June criticising his reaction to the street protests and his promise to add $300m (£231.3m) for community policing programmes.

He also faced criticism when he suggested in May that any African American who is considering voting for Mr Trump “ain’t black”. Under heavy criticism, he quickly walked back his remark.

Beyond these issues, some black activists have expressed frustration with Mr Biden’s “Lift Every Voice” plan for black America, which they argue would not go far enough to remedy long-standing racial inequities. In addition to facing pressure to embrace reparations. Mr Biden has also confronted calls to legalise marijuana, a position his plan stops short of adopting.

This week, Mr Biden has placed an emphasis on recognising women and people of colour. On Monday, he made a rare public appearance in the US Capitol, where he paid his respects to the late congressman John Lewis, a civil rights hero. He also received an endorsement from Naral Pro-Choice America, a national organisation supporting abortion rights.

Mr Biden said on Tuesday that he spoke to Lewis just before he died. Instead of focusing on himself, Mr Biden said, Lewis “asked about me. He asked about us. He asked that we stay focused on the work left undone to heal this nation”.

On Wednesday, Mr Biden plans to hold a virtual discussion with UnidosUS Action Fund president and CEO Janet Murguía about the “importance of the election and the stakes for the Latino community”, according to his campaign.

Following his speech, Mr Biden took questions from reporters, something that’s been far less common in this campaign given the restrictions imposed by the pandemic.

In response to one question, he said that while Mr Trump is trying to divide the country with his intervention in the racial justice protests, that does not exempt protesters from following the law and avoiding damage to property.

“I think we do need to hold those who violate the law accountable,” Mr Biden said. “We should never let what’s done in a march for equal rights overcome what the reason for the march is. And that’s what these folks are doing. And they should be found, arrested and tried.”

He also addressed the uniqueness of the campaign and the fact that he has delivered most of his public comments from his home in Delaware, rather than on the campaign trail in swing states as would normally be the case. When he has ventured out for speeches or remarks, it has generally been nearby in Delaware or Pennsylvania.

Mr Biden noted that millions of people have heard his comments despite those unorthodox circumstances.

He added: “I find it really doesn’t make a whole lot of difference where you do it from, as long as you can do it safely.”

The Washington Post