Obama’s Minority Report: Do Republican Presidents Cater to Small Businesses Better?

Minority Report was a 2002 blockbuster movie directed by Steven Spielberg that was a futuristic look at the world circa 2054. In that world, a special police department, called PreCrime, was established to apprehend criminals based on foreknowledge. Before I continue, let me clarify that I’m not equating Obama with being a criminal.

I have written several columns about Obama’s political decision to ignore the Black community because he knows they have nowhere else to go. I have also criticized him for his lack of understanding about business, especially minority business. So, it came as no surprise to me when Bloomberg News recently came out with its “minority report” that further indicated Obama’s lack of concern for the small and minority business community. This report is an ominous indicator of the state of small and minority business under the Obama administration.

According to Bloomberg News, “U.S. government contracts to Black-and Hispanic-owned small businesses fell last year for the first time in a decade, declining at a sharper rate than awards to all companies.

The BGOV Barometer shows contracts to the Black-owned firms dropped eight percent to $7.12 billion in the fiscal year that ended September 30 compared to fiscal 2010. Awards to Hispanic-owned businesses decreased seven percent to $7.89 billion, according to federal procurement data compiled by Bloomberg.

Contracts to the two minority groups fell at a faster pace than all contracts, which dipped one percent as the U.S. government slowed spending to help reduce the federal deficit. The gap may reflect stiffer competition over a shrinking pool of revenue and the recent recession’s greater impact on Black and Hispanic firms.

The only thing sadder than the Bloomberg report is the reaction by those “supposed” leaders in the minority community. “This is an alarming report and hopefully the people of good will are going to recommit themselves to erasing the vestiges of exclusion, which obviously impact small businesses,” said Congressional Black Caucus Chairman Emanuel Cleaver (D-MO).

What did he just say? “Hopefully the people of good will?” Are you kidding me? Remember, this is the same person who said on national TV in response to the question about Obama’s lack of action on the high unemployment rate within the Black community that, “if Obama was White we [Blacks] would be marching on the White House.”

According to a Politics 360 article by Lauren Burke, “The information reported by Bloomberg arrives three months after the Obama Administration closed all five minority business development offices.” On February 16th, officials from the Commerce Department told minority members of Congress at an evening Capitol Hill meeting of the Obama Administration’s plans to close the regional Offices of the Minority Business Development Agency.

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Present at the meeting with Commerce officials were Congressional Hispanic Caucus Chair Charlie Gonzalez (D-TX), Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus Chair Judy Chu (D-CA) and Reps. Grace Napolitano (D-CA), Yvette Clarke (D-NY), Bobby Scott (D-VA), G.K. Butterfield (D-NC) and Bobby Rush (D-IL) among others.”

The regional offices that will be closed are in Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco.  The Obama administration says the closings will save $30 million annually.  The agency was created in 1969 by former president Richard Nixon through an executive order.  Its purpose was to promote competitiveness and provide access to capital and contracts to minority businesses.

So, who is coming to the rescue? Yep, you guessed it, the supposed “racist Republicans.”  Florida Congressman, Allen West

has submitted a bill called the Contractor Opportunity Protection Act. The bill would prevent contract bundling, which has devastated small businesses since its inception in 1996 (contract bundling is the practice of packaging many small contracts into one larger contract, thus making it almost impossible for smalls firms to fairly compete). West’s bill was introduced on February 17, 2012, a day after the meeting where members learned of Obama’s plan to close those regional offices.

Since we’re talking about bundling, I guarantee that most of you have no idea about the history of bundling, which was created by the “first Black” President, Bill Clinton. In his attempt to streamline government procurement, Clinton tasked his Vice President, Al Gore to lead the administration’s “Reinventing Government” program. This led to the single most devastating policy affecting small and minority businesses–contract bundling.

So, let’s summarize: Bill Clinton, the first “Black president,” devastated the small and minority business community with his insidious “Reinventing Government” policy of 1996, which led to contract bundling. Then, the first “real” Black president closed all the regional offices of the Minority Business Development Agency (which was created with an executive order by former President Nixon). Then, a Black Republican, Allen West

, introduces legislation to try to undo the devastation caused by two Democratic presidents. Get the picture?

Many Blacks refuse to accept the fact that small and minority firms always do better under a Republican president. I predicted that Obama would hurt the small and minority business community, but Blacks refused to see what they didn’t believe (in psychology, this is called cognitive dissonance). Just like in the movie, Minority Report, Blacks knew (or should have known) in advance that their businesses would be hurt by Democratic presidents; but unlike the movie Blacks refused to change their own future.  If they don’t change their approach to politics, their extinction will be a footnote in someone else’s minority report.

The views expressed are those of Raynard Jackson, president & CEO of Raynard Jackson & Associates, LLC., a D.C.-public relations/government affairs firm. He is also a contributing editor for ExcellStyle Magazine, Freedom’s Journal Magazine and U.S. Africa Magazine.