Biden’s Plans to Put $$Billions into Black Colleges —Is This Political Agenda Big Enough to Close In the Black/White Disparity?

 

Biden's Plan to Invest Billions into Black Colleges

Rising concerns in annual deficits has prevailed in our national budgets.  What should government collect and what should they spend?  That is all settled by which political interests that are best served by the budgetary approach. 

 

 

Both Republican and Democratic parties have made efforts to reduce budget deficits but neither wants to offend the groups hit by budgetary cuts.  Today, that group is the blacks whose hopes to boost rebuilding of their institutions by investing in their youth’s colleges and universities.  Sort of.  New York Time’s article entitled Officials at Black Colleges Feel Stung by Cuts in Aid Planned in Democrats’ Bill cite billions of Democrat’s plans to invest by rebuilding the black schools and universities, which in my opinion, is not a major cut by any standards.  Some might argue that handling out to one ethnic group is a controversial subject in itself. 

 

 

Our political environs influence the budgetary decision and the decision processes.  Government growing stress from revenue sources, calls for balanced budget, demands to reduce deficit spending, and citizens’ forgoing of increased taxes especially state and local all impact budget deficits.  These yield pressures on all public budgets making budgetary decisions hard for Congress.  Government budget is focused on our political life. 

 

 

Consensus on the national budgets has curtailed.  Dissensus has redoubled since the early 1980s.  Sharp differences and intense conflicts have prevailed in matters over deficits, taxation, welfare, and military spending.  The question is how much, who pays, and what for.  Former president Clinton, for example, was forced to make spending cuts with Republican victories in Congress.  Government expenditures impact large segments of the society. 

 

 

Tax policy is an instrument of the economic management.  The national budget exceeded $1.7 trillion in expenditures in the fiscal year in 1998.  Government borrowing and debt has become a major issue.  Our budget deficit is the cost of interest that must be paid on the difference between how much the government collects and how much it spends.  Federal budget deficit is measured against the percentage of the GNP which significantly reduced during Clinton administration after agreements were reached between the dissenting parties. 

 

 

The disproportionate representation of Blacks vs whites or minority groups vs Whites have been redressed in schools and jobs in the previous decades.  Early 1970s marked the beginning of national government guidelines for affirmative action to remedy past discriminations.  Education institutions, local polices, collegiate athletes, and other institutions that wanted federal funds had to comply with certain guidelines.  Some parts of the policy decision were reversed by the Supreme Court and lower courts.  Some individuals and groups were unfairly discriminated against in the past and sought to redress grievances brought forth by government services. 

 

 

Quotas set in affirmative action hiring have risen as a controversial subject.  Setting fixed percentage of all positions or government contracts for members of ethnic groups and women build arguments for reverse discrimination.  Yet African workers only made up 16.6% of federal civilian jobs in 1990 and minority groups along with women remained concentrated mostly in the lower ranked jobs.  Affirmative action programs sought to adjust proportional representation of women in the national, state, and local government.