Black folks won't benefit from a just-passed $18 billion jobs bill, says Rep. Elijah Cummings, a Democrat from Maryland.

Because the bill largely consists of tax breaks for small businesses, Cummings said African-Americans won't be affected.

"The problem in the African-American community I don't think will be helped a lot by that bill," Cummings, a member of the Congressional Black Caucus, told MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell.

According to The Hill:

The main provision of the bill is a new tax break for small businesses that hire new workers. The measure provides $13 billion to fund the tax break, which exempts small firms from paying the Social Security payroll tax on each new worker and also provides a small firm with a $1,000 tax credit for each new worker who stays on for a year. "We have found a way to hire workers, help businesses that hire them with tax cuts and keep it budget-neutral," said to New York Democrat Sen. Charles Schumer .

Cummings is a member of the Congressional Black Caucus. The group of black legislators has accused President Obama of ignoring the needs of African Americans, 98 percent of whom support the president according to some polls, especially when it comes to unemployment. The unemployment rate for African Americans was 15.8 percent compared to 9.7 percent nationally. The unemployment rate for Black men is17.8 percent with 1.4 million out of work. That is astronomical, sickening and probably much higher.

Cummings said he is still in favor of the bill but will be pushing hard for pending legislation that "focuses on impoverished communities and helps retrain workers," The Hill writes.

Cummings is both right and wrong.

Blacks will benefit if more businesses begin hiring. I'm sure African Americans will get some of those jobs that small businesses may offer because of the tax breaks.

Blacks also use the highways. The jobs legislation would allow states low cost federal bonds for highway construction and repair. Hopefully, we will be in line for at least a few of those jobs as well.

However, the CBC is right to keep the pressure on Obama about ways in which he can help African-Americans. President Obama has said that he can't push legislation just for Blacks because he is president of all Americans, but he can support legislation that addresses issues that largely affect African-Americans.

Let's be clear. If there was a piece of legislation that was needed to rectify a wrong done to African Americans or address an issue that was mainly affecting the Black community, Obama should support the change. The same could be said of a problem specific to any group of Americans.

As I wrote earlier, I'd rather that President Obama have a long list of accomplishments that helped African-Americans when he leaves office as opposed to a long list of bloviating speeches. Doesn't the African-American community get enough lip service?

Things like prison sentencing disparities predominately affect Black and Latinos but poor whites are probably also affected. The same thing applies with the retraining of workers. or health care reform. How many unemployed factory workers in Middle America need to find another skill because their car manufacturing jobs may never come back?

African-Americans have given away their support to politicians for too long. We should demand attention for those issues that affect us most. However, we aren't the only ones struggling with a lot of these issues. I wish more people in this country realized that.