President Barack Obama announced a broad proposal for job creation, targeting small business with more aid for the unemployed, but the jury is out on whether members of the Congressional Black Caucus, who have called for targeted efforts to help black Americans, will be satisfied.
The jobs plan rolled out by President Obama during a speech at the Brookings Institution Tuesday morning followed the general theme of aid packages unveiled during his administration: general assistance to the poor and unemployed but none targeted to specific groups.
For small businesses, the president has proposed extending tax breaks for some small business capital investments costing up to $250,000. He also proposes giving tax breaks to small businesses, hiring new workers and eliminating fees on loans made through the Small Business Administration.
For the unemployed, Obama is seeking more aid to extend benefits for those paying for Cobra health insurance.
In response to questions on why he hasn't employed a more targeted approach to help minorities find jobs, the president said that since minorities are overrepresented in the numbers of poor and unemployed hurt by the economic downturn, his measures will have a great impact on helping the minority community.
But some CBC members have been hinting that they seek more direct and targeted measures to help their constituents.
Members of the CBC have been playing down any open tensions between themselves and Obama, who was a CBC member when he was an Illinois senator. That does not mean some friction hasn't surfaced, though.
Last week, 10 members of the 43-member caucus boycotted a financial overhaul vote, a move viewed as a subtle jab at the Obama administration. And Rep. John Conyers of Michigan, when asked if he was disappointed with how Obama has attended to the needs of African Americans, shouted, "Yes," at a recent press conference.
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By: sarah riegler on 12/08/2009 6:21PM
I keep trying to tell every body that Obama is white with a very thin chocolate shell! My Mamma used to tell me that you can tell alot about a man by the way he treats his mother. Look at Obama's auntee living in povery and his half brother too. Do any black people really think he will look after his own? I am suffering a bad case of voter's remorse. It will be a cold day in he!! before I ever vote for that fool again.
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By: Doris on 12/21/2009 11:18AM
How quickly we forget the situation we were in prior to this past election. We voted for change and we all know from our own lives change takes time. We also know there was more dirt below the surface that Barak could not see until he got in office. Give the man a chance. Why are you talking about his family that I bet you know nothing about. There are opportunities coming just be ready for them when they come your way!
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By: ken on 12/09/2009 1:37PM
that's what you get when you vote on color and not substance. you prejudice people will understand that when obama takes america down to a third world country like africa. now you can say you are an african-american when that happens
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By: tired of Poor Me Attitude on 12/08/2009 8:43PM
Obama is still getting it wrong. It is OBVIOUS he has never met a payroll. As an employer he has no clue what it will take to get business to hire. Cap and Trade, this rediculous health care bill and his tax plans make it impossible for me to hire anyone else. I have no clue what he will pull out of his hat next. As long as there is such incertanty there will be less jobs.
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By: Redd on 12/08/2009 8:59PM
President Obama hasn't been in office a year yet and everybody is jumping ship. Give him a chance he will never satisfy everybody in this bad situation Bush has put us in! It will take time to fix all these problems. So stop criticizing him and pray that God will direct him. I have one question for the BC did they withhold their votes when Bush was in office. Did they question him? No they went their butts home and didn't say a word. Job decline for African Americans didn't begin once President Obama got in office. I am so sick of all of this, he is trying, so shut up!
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By: eric on 12/08/2009 9:41PM
My question is, "WHEN ARE BLACK PEOPLE GOING TO BEGIN TO HELP THEMSELVES, FOR A CHANGE?" Don't try to just blame the President, for what's been going on for years! The black community always suffers with employment, but that's why we continually fail to develop our communities,. Because we just don't know how to work together, nor are we even trying...many are doing exactly what they do the most. That's just complaining as usual!
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By: sammy on 12/10/2009 9:20PM
All of you whinners need to get up off of your lazy behinds and try to do something for yourself and your community. The President does not owe you and your six children without fathers another welfare check. Nor can he get you jobs as cardiac surgeons or rocket scientists. Especially when so many of the whinners have nothing to offer, can’t speak standard english and dropped out of school at the 9th grade.
Do you NON-THINKERS really believe that the President can create job just for black people? What planet do you folks live on? Most of the black people who don't have these big time jobs they are whinning about DID NOT HAVE THEM WHEN GEORGE BUSH WAS IN THE WHITE HOUSE. No complaints then.
And if five million jobs were created today, who among the whinners would be qualified to fill those jobs? So many of the whinners are under-educated (because they choose to be) or have dropped out of school all together. They have no marketable skills (because they chose not to have learned any). And they have very poor communication skills (because to learn to speak english and to become educated is, of course, acting white).
Instead of waiting for a hand out, some of the whinners ought to be smart enough to pool resources and start some type of business like the Asians, Arabs, Indians, Koreans and every other group that comes to this country manages to do. You don't find them sitting around whinning. And when they start earning money from their businesses, they don't go out and spend that money of big cars and gold jewelry. Few, if any, black people would go throught what these people do to start or maintain a business. (And please, don't give that bs excuse that "the man" is keeping you from trying to do for yourselves).
You had your chance to vote for someone who would have done everything possible under the sun to help black people: John McCain/Sarah Palin.
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By: Chollys on 12/11/2009 11:08PM
You Bozo!
"Job decline for African Americans didn't begin once President Obama got in office. I am so sick of all of this, he is trying, so shut up!"
This is a commentary board, dummy!
Furthermore, we hold Obama responsible! He was "jack be nimble-and quick" to bail out the rich stockbrokers on wall street,credit card sharks and bank thugs,!Obama was quicker than the UPS man when the military warlords said lest increase the invasion, and slaughter the dissent, and silence the pauper,increase our wealth and control the region for our corporate employers!The very same corporations that ship jobs overseas for cheap sweathouse, child labor,are the jokers that lay off the tax payers who bailed them out!The same corporations that tell Obama, to just hold round table discussions on the possibility of creating jobs, we hope illegals won't gobble up!
So lay off the booze and stop watching sports so much Redd! You just might learn something if you're brave and stong, and haven't burnt out your brain cells! Pray!
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By: Ethel on 12/13/2009 8:39AM
Yes, I think the BC is doing their job - they are trying to get federal assistance for problems that hduring the Bush Administration, and there is no evidence that they did not vote as a block or pressured the then administration about aid for Katrina victims.
The fact that Pres. Obama is an African American president who secured almost 98% of the African American vote does not mean that he should not be held accountable to those who supported him.
He has been in office for over a year and look what he has accomplished: (1)more troops to Afghanistan - conservatives are licking their lips! 2) two big- time stimulus bail-outs to wall street - the rich are licking their lips!
So where is the help for the less fortunate?
All this comparison of perceived African- American social issues is just plain stupid! Afican Americans are citizens of the US and they are no more responsible for each other than any other ethnic or special interest groups in America!
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By: tatummp1 on 12/21/2009 5:36PM
Yes I agree that Bush put us all in a mess and that Obama has only been in office for a short time. However my husband is a black ironworker in Missouri and has been unemployed for two years. There should be some type of mandate on putting the black construction workers back to work. All the projections are going to the white companies and they are only whites. So the money that was to be given for bridges and roads are not benefiting them. What is the plan for those that are running out of extensions on unemployment? We have already lost our home. The mortgage bill did not assist most blacks. So I believe that something needs to be done. My husband is not lazy and wants to go back to work. I have been on my job for over 19 years and we do not want a handout we only want the opportunity to live.
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