As President George W. Bush’s approval ratings continue to plummet, it seems like a major swath of Americans are finally paying attention to the concerns that most black Americans spotted four years ago, ranging from a failing public education system to a volatile economy. A 1,500-person poll released by the Pew Research Center for the People and The Press, a Washington, D.C.-based independent opinion research group, showed Bush’s approval ratings descending to an all-time low of 38%.
According to the poll, 80% of African Americans disapprove of Bush and 92% want the next president to offer different policies and programs. It wasn’t just a black thing: 69% of all Americans share that sentiment, while 57% said the administration’s policies have negatively impacted the nation’s economy and the gap between rich and poor.
“I think it’s been a difficult four years for many African Americans in this country. You’ve seen a rise for the first time in a very long time in the number of adults and children living in poverty, and a disproportionate number of both those groups are African American,” says Rep. Artur Davis (D-Ala.). “The administration has pronounced itself an example of this new kind of compassionate conservatism, but the reality has simply never lived up to the rhetoric of the 2000 campaign.”
Claude A. Allen, Bush’s chief domestic policy adviser, says the president has initiated a number of policies that have positively affected African Americans. “On the most recent national report card looking at education, scores for African Americans closed the gap more than any other group. That’s telling [us] that our kids are doing better in school, which is critical,” points out Allen. He adds that many minority-owned and women-owned businesses have reaped benefits from the 7(a) small business loan program.
Economic indicators show that many Americans grew poorer during Bush’s first four years in office. In 2004, the overall poverty rate increased for the fourth year in a row. The poverty rate for African Americans remained high at 24.7%, three times the poverty rate for whites, according to Census Bureau reports.`
“It’s a manifestation of the fact that the economy’s being pulled apart and the middle class is being battered in the process,” says Ronald Walters, a University of Maryland political scientist. “To the extent that we’re new entrants in the middle class, we’re suffering.”
According to Walters, higher education and high-paying, jobs fuel the engine that has driven the middle class. “In the last five years, we’ve lost 2.7 million industrial jobs, 15% to 20% of which were held by blacks. What [is needed] to make up for that loss is a very steep increase in the number of people who are going to college and getting other high-paying jobs,” he says. “It’s not happening fast enough. So while you have some increase in the black middle class as a result of education, the comparative relationship between the black and the white middle class is eroding.”
During its tenure, the administration has aggressively fought affirmative action policies in higher education. Its most notable education legislation is the No Child Left Behind Act. “It’s very hard to argue that the educational status of African Americans has measurably improved. I think accountability is a good idea, but the reality is we haven’t created any new funding structures or taken dramatic steps to really change the conditions in a lot of our school systems populated primarily by African Americans,” says Davis. “This gap is particularly apparent in rural areas, which are completely outside the ambit of No Child Left Behind. While performance continues to be mixed, states are balking at the lack of funding they have received to meet performance standards.
Bush and his supporters frequently cite his tax cuts as a pro-growth choice that works. But Davis and others disagree. “It’s simply bad economic policy. There’s no question that some people have benefited. But if you earn less than $100,000, the cuts have had no measurable economic impact on your well-being,” he says. “Most serious economists will tell you that whatever stimulative gain the economy has gained is in danger of being offset by rising interest rates, uncertainty because of the deficit, and debts our country has accumulated — a significant chunk of which can be attributed to the outsize tax cuts. Their impact on African Americans is almost nonexistent, except for a small class of people like Bill Cosby or Tavis Smiley.”
Bush’s supporters also laud his homeownership agenda and what it has done for blacks. “Homeownership helps create wealth in our community. The president has set a goal of 5.5 million minority homeowners by 2010. We’re already at 2 million because of the American Dream Down
Davis applauds the administration’s commitment to increasing minority homeownership with one caveat: “While we have seen some rise in homeownership, we’ve also seen a rise in predatory lending and unjustifiable sub prime lending in the African American community. This administration has not only failed to formulate policies to resist that but has actively opposed efforts in Congress to regulate the mortgage market so it’s more transparent and fair.” Davis believes it will be several years before we can determine whether the American Dream Act has had an acute effect on the African American community. Walters adds, “The housing market has been huge. I would like to see the data that proves [the increase] is due to a federal program rather than the market.”
Entrepreneurship is also a critical wealth builder for black African Americans, who are 50% more likely to start a business than the rest of the population. “The president recognizes what tax incentives for black small businesses will do to help them grow and succeed, and they have grown upward and over 17% annually because of some of the incentives he’s put in place,” says Tara Wall, a Republican National Committee spokesperson.
But cuts to the Small Business Administration’s budget cause Rep. Albert Wynn (D-Md.) to question how committed the administration truly is to helping minority and other small businesses flourish. Since 2001, SBA’s budget has been cut from $900 million to $593 million. “President Bush pays lip service to an ‘ownership society,’ but his administration has consistently targeted for elimination the SBA’s venture capital, micro-lending, and loan guarantee programs for women, minorities, and underserved populations,” charges Wynn. “Internal reports that the SBA was forced in court to make public revealed that over $2 billion in small business contracts, including over $400 million in minority/disadvantaged set-aside funds, went to some of the largest companies in the world — Hewlett-Packard, Titan Corporation, Raytheon, and Archer Daniels Midland.”
Challenges continue to malign the efforts of minority businesses to win federal contracts. According to a report released by the Democratic staff of the House Small Business Committee in October, minorities, who own 4.1 million firms, lost $3.6 billion in federal contracting opportunities during the 2004 fiscal year. In addition, the report noted, the dollar value of contracts awarded to minority firms declined by 9%.
Michael Russell, CEO of H.J. Russell & Co. (No. 13 on the BE INDUSTRIAL/SERVICE 100 list with $304.2 million in
sales) says the administration has struggled to connect with the African American community in general. “Because of that, it has continued to not have the type of relationship I think it would like to have with African American business owners. Certainly the lack of sensitivity from the government perspective [toward] a higher level of inclusion, particularly for small businesses, has had a negative impact,” he says.“Most business owners like m
yself believe that Bush is pro-business and wants to see businesses succeed, but he hasn’t been able to [reconcile] that with other distractions, such as the Iraq war,” Russell says. “I just don’t think [diversity in business] has been on the agenda.”
Ironically, the one area in which some people agree the administration has done a good job for blacks is its commitment to providing aid to Africa. “There has been some good movement on that horizon,” says Walters. “The administration has done more than the previous administration with respect to aid to Africa, and one has to respect that.” The president’s Millennium Challenge Account pledges to increase global development assistance by 50% by fiscal year 2006. The African Growth and Opportunity Act increased U.S. exports by 25% in 2004, to $8.6 billion, while non-oil imports totaled $3.5 billion, up 22%.
Davis applauds the appointments of both Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice to secretary of state. “I couldn’t have imagined 25 years ago that we’d have a black secretary of state succeeded by a black secretary of state. I think the president does deserve some credit for that,” Davis says. But when it comes to domestic policy, he adds, “I think it’s near impossible to find a single Bush domestic policy that has accrued to the benefit of African Americans.”