DNC Director of Outreach Communications Tracy King released the following statement:
“Vice President Harris’ newly released small business plan, a major component of her plans to build an opportunity economy, will help continue and expand the Black small business boom that started under the Biden-Harris administration. President Biden and Vice President Harris have taken action to close the racial wealth gap and invest in the success of Black families, with the number of Black-owned businesses doubling since before the pandemic and millions of new jobs created. A Harris-Walz administration will continue the fight to expand economic opportunities for working- and middle-class Black families while Donald Trump’s extreme and billionaire-friendly economic agenda will fail us at every turn. Make no mistake; Trump has already failed us before – from skyrocketing Black unemployment on his watch and failures in providing support to Black small businesses during the pandemic to lining the pockets of his Wall Street allies at the expense of the middle class with his signature tax scam. The contrast is clear: Vice President Harris and Governor Walz are the only candidates in this race who will continue to grow the economy, prioritize new investments in Black communities, and fight for Black working families.”
Today, Vice President Harris announced a plan to help small businesses start, grow, and create jobs that will directly benefit Black-owned small businesses.
The Grio: “The Harris campaign announced that the vice president would also unveil new policies on Wednesday as part of her economic agenda. These include $5,000 to $50,000 in tax deductions for startup expenses for small businesses. Harris will also announce a goal of securing 25 million new small business applications in her first term if elected.
“Many of Harris’ economic policies announced so far directly align with the top concerns of Black voters, according to the Black Census, a 2023 survey of more than 200,000 Black voters conducted by Black Futures Lab”
Politico: “Kamala Harris rolled out a new plan for small business tax breaks, as the vice president looks to contrast her economic agenda with former President Donald Trump ahead of next week’s debate.
Harris’ proposal, released on Tuesday, calls for significantly expanding the tax deduction for start-up expenses from $5,000 to $50,000, while also setting the goal of 25 million new small-business applications during her first term, according to a Harris campaign official granted anonymity to describe details of the plan. The plan also proposes reducing barriers to getting occupational licenses and developing a standard tax deduction for small businesses. […]
The proposal’s focus on tax breaks for small businesses attempts to craft a contrast with Trump, who has called for lowering the corporate tax rate, as well as extending and expanding his 2017 tax law.”
In June, the Biden-Harris administration announced over 18 million new business applications had been submitted since they took office, and Black-owned small business creation is at its highest level in 25 years.
Statement from President Biden: “Today, my Administration announced over 18 million new business applications since I took office, each one an act of hope and confidence. We’ve had the three strongest years for new businesses on record and the small business boom that has powered our economic comeback continues. Since the pandemic, Black business ownership has more than doubled, Hispanic business ownership is up 40 percent, and women own a record share of businesses.
Small Business Administration: “Under the Biden-Harris Administration, the United States has experienced a historic small business boom being led by women and people of color, and FY23 furthered that trend with 11 percent more loans delivered to small businesses than in FY22. Black-owned small businesses are crucial to this monumental growth, with the rate of Black-owned small business creation at its highest level in 25 years.”
White House Fact Sheet: “The American Rescue Plan also includes a Small Business Opportunity Fund to provide growth capital to main street small businesses in economically disadvantaged areas, including minority-owned businesses”
Vice President Harris, with Biden, has presided over the creation of over 2.5 million jobs for Black workers and under their leadership, the Black unemployment rate fell below five percent for the first time ever on record.
White House Fact Sheet: Indeed, in April 2023, the unemployment rate for Black workers dropped to 4.8 percent, the lowest since [data collection] began. The latest data shows that unemployment rate for Black workers was 5.6 percent in April 2024 continuing the trend of low unemployment rate for this group by historical standards. For context, the average unemployment rate for Black Americans was about 8 percent from 2016 to 2020 and 11 percent from 2000 to 2015.
Axios: “The unemployment rate for Black Americans fell below 5% for the first time ever in April.
“Another all-time low: the gap between Black and white unemployment. It’s now 1.6 percentage points, down from 5.4 points in August 2020 and 12.1 points in January 1983.”
White House Fact Sheet: “The Biden-Harris administration has:
- “Powered a historic economic recovery that created 2.6 million jobs for Black workers—and achieved both the lowest Black unemployment rate on record and the lowest gap between Black and White unemployment on record.
- “Helped Black working families build wealth. Black wealth is up by 60% relative to pre-pandemic—the largest increase on record.”
Vice President Harris has helped to deliver more than $167 billion in student loan debt relief, which disproportionately affects Black Americans, helping to close the racial wealth gap.
CBS News: “The White House on Wednesday said it has approved $7.7 billion of student debt cancellation for 160,500 borrowers, part of its ongoing effort to provide relief after the Supreme Court last year blocked President Joe Biden’s plan for broad-based college loan forgiveness.
“With the latest round of forgiveness, the administration has erased a total of $167 billion in student loans for 4.75 million people, or about 1 in 10 student loan borrowers, the Department of Education said.”
ABC News: “About 12% of youth put student loan debt into their top three issues, while Black voters are twice as likely to list it in their top three, Kiesa said, citing a recent CIRCLE survey from November.”
Forbes: “How Biden Forgiving Another $9 Billion In Student Loan Debt Helps Close The Racial Wealth Gap”
“The burden of student loan debt has reached crisis levels, disproportionately affecting students of color and amplifying the racial wealth gap. Now, President Biden’s latest step will help 125,000 borrowers by erasing $9 billion in debt through existing programs. This debt load is not distributed evenly across populations, it falls disproportionately on students of color and their families who are actively trying to close the racial wealth gap.”
The child tax credit expansion in the Biden-Harris administration’s historic American Rescue Plan cut poverty rates for Black children in half in 2021.
PolitiFact: “Biden says expanded child tax credit sharply cut poverty for Black children; data shows he’s right
“Poverty among Black children in the United States dropped nearly half from 2020 to 2021, following the expansion of the child tax credit, according to U.S. Census Bureau supplemental poverty measure data.”
The Biden-Harris administration provided relief and support to help families stay in their homes during the pandemic and has worked to help make homeownership a reality for more Americans.
White House Fact Sheet: “President Biden’s American Rescue Plan has helped Americans, including Black Americans, stay in their homes by providing emergency rental assistance. Over 8 million households were served by Emergency Rental Assistance. As of June 2022, Black Americans were the largest group that received this help, representing more than 41% of aid recipients. The Administration implemented a series of measures that protected homeowners from foreclosure, including a foreclosure moratorium, increased options for mortgage payment forbearance, enhanced loan modifications to resolve delinquencies. In addition, the ARP is helping struggling homeowners catch up with their mortgage payments and utility costs through the Homeowner Assistance Fund.”
Federal Housing Administration: “From Day One, the Biden-Harris administration has sought to make homeownership a reality for more Americans, especially those who have historically been shut out of such opportunities. While the market challenges we faced in fiscal year 2023 made our work more difficult, the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) successfully expanded its role in making homeownership more affordable, more accessible, and fairer for all.”
Federal Housing Administration: “Similarly, FHA remained the
leader by share for mortgages supporting wealth-building for Black and Hispanic borrowers.”
New York Times: “The pilot program, part of the $6 trillion budget request planned to be released by President Biden on Friday, would pay for increased down payments from recipients of Federal Housing Administration loans, giving borrowers instant ownership equity comparable to that of their more affluent neighbors and white homeowners.”
Washington Informer: “The administration has budgeted $10 billion for the 2025 budget to help first generation homeowners to help nearly a half million families purchase a home.”
Let’s not forget that Trump’s MAGAnomics agenda left behind and failed Black business owners, students, and others.
New York Times op-ed: “Republicans argue that this will benefit small businesses. In fact, a large majority of small-business owners already have personal tax rates below 25 percent. This provision would aid a small group of developers, investors and other tycoons who work in professions or industries where it is relatively easy to set up pass-through businesses. Like, yes, Mr. Trump and his family, who make their money from one such industry: real estate.”
Vox: “Trump said this tax break was for small businesses. It’s giving $17 billion to millionaires this year”
Associated Press: “Education advocates say President Donald Trump’s budget contradicts his campaign pledge to make college more affordable with its proposed elimination of subsidized student loans and cuts in other programs that help students pay tuition. … When he accepted the Republican presidential nomination last year, Trump had said, ‘We’re going to work with all of our students who are drowning in debt to take the pressure off these people just starting out in their adult lives. Tremendous problem.’”
Brookings Institute: “Under the Trump administration, the Treasury Department oversaw and led the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), which was slow to reach most Black-owned businesses. In 2021, Treasury Secretary Yellen announced that the department would invest $9 billion into the Emergency Capital Investment Program, a new initiative designed to provide capital to community development financial institutions and minority depository institutions—entities that have a better track record of working with the conditions surrounding Black borrowers.”
CNBC: “Paycheck Protection Program may have left minority business owners behind due to an implementation failure”
NPR: “But a new report from the Small Business Administration’s inspector general found that businesses owned by people of color may not have received loans as intended under the Paycheck Protection Program. There was no evidence, the report said, that the SBA told lenders to prioritize business owners in ‘underserved’ markets, including business owners of color — something the CARES Act had specifically instructed the SBA to do.”
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