Joe Biden pledges to splash cash on black middle-class

Joe Biden has announced several expensive policies aiming to improve opportunities for black Americans if he is elected president.

Joe Biden delivers his policy speech in Wilmington, Delaware. Picture: AFP

Joe Biden has announced several expensive policies aimed at improving business, education and housing opportunities for black Americans if he is elected president in November.

The presumptive Democratic candidate said in his fourth big policy speech on Wednesday AEST that he would provide $US150bn ($210bn) in business loans and grants for ethnic-­minority-owned businesses and billions more for training and education.

The pledges, spurred by a summer of protest about racial injustice, would bring his total spending to about $US4 trillion, with some estimates putting it as high as $US8 trillion over the four-year period.

Such vast sums, accompanied by tax rises, would have been an election loser in previous campaigns but the need to rebuild the economy after the coronavirus pandemic has given political cover for previously unthinkable spending promises. The coronavirus ­relief bill passed by congress in May cost $US3 trillion, and the cost of the next is set to exceed $US1 trillion.

Mr Biden’s speech on measures to close racial economic divisions follows his proposals to support jobs, tackle climate change and help caregivers.

His plans to end racial disparities in business and educational opportunity did not go as far as some on the left wanted, because he avoided making an explicit pledge on reparations; the call for compensation for generational economic harm caused by slavery and segregation.

Mr Biden’s plan included a tax credit of up to $US15,000 to help families to buy their first homes.

He avoided any promise to legalise marijuana, an issue that campaigners say would do much to reduce the imprisonment of blacks and Hispanics.

Speculation is intensifying on who Mr Biden will choose as his running mate before his self-­imposed deadline of Saturday. It will be a woman, and the favourite remains Kamala Harris, 55, a black senator from California.

But the cat may already be out of the bag after what looked like a blunder from US media outlet ­Politico on Wednesday when it published an article tracking the candidates to join Mr Biden’s ticket.

“Joe Biden chose Kamala Harris to become his running mate for the 2020 election on August 1, two weeks before the Democratic ­National Convention, after keeping his choice close to his chest for months,” Politico said. “In his announcement, Biden called Harris ‘a worthy opponent and a worthy running mate’, ­alluding to the pair’s rivalry during the earlier ­stages of the Democratic primary.”

Mr Biden has not made any such announcement, and certainly not on August 1, which has not happened yet.

Politico promptly changed the article back to a previous version.

There are strong cases being made for two other black women: Karen Bass, 66, a congresswoman from California, and Susan Rice, 55, a centrist, former national ­security adviser to Barack Obama.

Tammy Duckworth, 52, an ­Illinois senator and army veteran, is also a contender.

The Times