DNC Director of Outreach Communications Tracy King released the following statement: 

“President Biden and Vice President Harris have helped generate historic growth for Black-owned businesses, cut Black child poverty in half in 2021, provided billions in funding for HBCUs and canceled student loan debt for about 5 million Americans, which disproportionately affects 86% of Black Americans who have taken out student loans. Meanwhile, Donald Trump’s MAGAnomics agenda saw a record number of Black-owned businesses shuttered and excluded from government loans, a sharp increase in Black unemployment and uninsured rates, and let’s not forget his child tax scam that widened the racial wealth gap while benefiting his ultra-wealthy cronies.”

President Biden is investing in Black entrepreneurship and helping to build generational wealth. Under his leadership, Black small businesses are experiencing historic growth.

White House Fact Sheet: “Under President Biden, a record 16 million new business applications have been filed, while the share of Black households owning a business has more than doubled, and the share of Latino households owning a business has increased by 40%.”

Small Business Administration: “Under the Biden-Harris Administration, the United States has experienced a historic small business boom being led by women and people of color, and FY23 furthered that trend with 11 percent more loans delivered to small businesses than in FY22. Black-owned small businesses are crucial to this monumental growth, with the rate of Black-owned small business creation at its highest level in 25 years.” 

President Biden has helped create 15 million new jobs, and the Black unemployment rate dropped to a record-breaking low. 

Axios: “The unemployment rate for Black Americans fell below 5% for the first time ever in April. By the numbers: The rate peaked at 16.8% in May 2020, and since then has fallen by an astonishing 12.1 percentage points to 4.7% now (though the decline was driven, in part, by a drop in labor force participation among Black workers).”

White House Fact Sheet: “Already, since President Biden took office, the economy has added 15 million jobs while the unemployment rate fell to its lowest level in half of a century, remaining below 4 percent for a record 26 months.”

President Biden delivered on his promise to increase funding for HBCUs and has fought to forgive nearly $160 billion in student loan debt relief.

White House Fact Sheet: Investing over $16 billion in HBCUs, which includes:

• Nearly $4 billion for HBCUs through the American Rescue Plan and other COVID relief.
• $1.6 billion in capital finance debt relief for 45 public and private HBCUs.
• $2.8 billion in need-based grants and other Federal programs, including Pell Grants, Federal Work-Study and Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grants, 

CNBC: As student loan forgiveness nears $160 billion, here’s what to know about the relief programs

ABC News: “About 12% of youth put student loan debt into their top three issues, while Black voters are twice as likely to list it in their top three, Kiesa said, citing a recent CIRCLE survey from November.”

Forbes: “How Biden Forgiving Another $9 Billion In Student Loan Debt Helps Close The Racial Wealth Gap”

“The burden of student loan debt has reached crisis levels, disproportionately affecting students of color and amplifying the racial wealth gap. Now, President Biden’s latest step will help 125,000 borrowers by erasing $9 billion in debt through existing programs. This debt load is not distributed evenly across populations, it falls disproportionately on students of color and their families who are actively trying to close the racial wealth gap.”

President Biden expanded the child tax credit and nearly cut the Black child poverty rate in half in 2021.

PolitiFact: “Biden says expanded child tax credit sharply cut poverty for Black children; data shows he’s right”

“Poverty among Black children in the United States dropped nearly half from 2020 to 2021, following the expansion of the child tax credit, according to U.S. Census Bureau supplemental poverty measure data.”

The Biden-Harris Administration announced $2 billion to fund climate, clean energy, and cleanup projects, targeted toward low-income and minority communities. 

Associated Press: “EPA offers $2B to clean up pollution, develop clean energy in poor and minority communities”

“The Biden administration is making $2 billion available to community groups, states and tribes to clean up pollution and develop clean energy in disadvantaged communities in what officials called the largest-ever investment in environmental justice…

“Folks, this is historic,’ Regan told reporters at a news conference Tuesday. The program, funded by the sweeping climate law signed last year by President Joe Biden, is aimed at poor and minority communities ‘that have long been overlooked and forgotten’ and struggle to gain access to federal funding, Regan said…

“Regan, the first Black man to lead EPA, has made environmental justice a top priority and has visited a number of poor and minority communities in the South, Appalachia and Alaska in a years-long ‘Journey to Justice’ tour.”

President Biden delivered on his promise to cap insulin at $35 a month for seniors on Medicare, drastically lowering prices for the roughly 38% of Black Medicare beneficiaries who take insulin to manage their diabetes.

The Root: “Here’s How Biden’s Inflation Act Helps Black Americans With Diabetes”

“Over five million Black Americans live with diabetes, according to the American Diabetes Association. Roughly 19 percent of all African Americans in the United States over 20 years old have diabetes, compared to just 7 percent of all white Americans.

“This could be a huge improvement for many Black Medicare recipients who receive drug coverage and also take insulin. As of 2011, roughly 38 percent of Black Medicare beneficiaries had diabetes, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. And nearly a third of Black Medicare beneficiaries reported health care cost-related problems in 2018.”

CNN: “More Americans can now get insulin for $35” 

“Congress, the White House and new players in the market have increased pressure on insulin manufacturers to lower their prices. Eli Lilly and Sanofi announced that they would institute $35 caps shortly after President Joe Biden called on drugmakers to do so in his State of the Union address last year.” 

President Biden is strengthening and protecting Black Americans’ access to health care.

CNN: “Obamacare sign-ups hit record 21.3 million as Biden pushes his efforts to lower health care costs”

“Nearly 5 million more people signed up for Obamacare policies for this year compared with last year, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which oversees the Affordable Care Act marketplaces, said Wednesday. Notably, about a quarter of people selecting plans were new consumers.”

The Hill: “Biden touts Affordable Care Act enrollment spike” 

“The White House is reporting strong enrollment numbers through the Affordable Care Act (ACA) one week after enrollment began, with 300,000 new customers signing up for plans already.”

Washington Post: “ACA linked to reduced racial disparities, earlier diagnosis and treatment in cancer care”

AARP: “ACA Has Led to More African Americans Getting Health Insurance”

“The number of Black Americans under age 65 without health insurance has dropped by 40 percent since the implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), according to a new report by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.”

“In 2011 about 7.1 million African Americans lacked coverage, but by 2019 that number had dropped to 4.4 million, according to the report by researchers in HHS’s Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE).”

Donald Trump’s administration let Black-owned businesses suffer, allowing the Treasury Department to distribute loans inequitably. 

Forbes: “Between February and April of 2020, Black business ownership declined more than 40%, the largest drop across any ethnic group, according to a report by the House Committee on Small Business Committee. The report details the impact Covid-19 has had on Black-owned businesses in the United States. Black-owned businesses were less likely to handle mandated closures due to lack of access to financial relief.”

Brookings Institute: “Under the Trump administration, the Treasury Department oversaw and led the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), which was slow to reach most Black-owned businesses. In 2021, Treasury Secretary Yellen announced that the department would invest $9 billion into the Emergency Capital Investment Program, a new initiative designed to provide capital to community development financial institutions and minority depository institutions—entities that have a better track record of working with the conditions surrounding Black borrowers.” 

CNBC: “Paycheck Protection Program may have left minority business owners behind due to an implementation failure”

The Black unemployment rate was higher under the Trump administration than the Biden administration, and he tried to take credit for Black job growth that he didn’t create. 

Associated Press: “THE FACTS: Trump is seeking credit he doesn’t deserve for black job growth. He’s also wrong to assert that Democrats haven’t done anything to improve the economic situation for African Americans.

[…]

“More important, there are multiple signs that the racial wealth gap is now worsening and the administration appears to have done little, if anything, to specifically address this challenge.

“African Americans also had higher income prior to the Trump administration. A black household earned median income of $40,258 in 2017, the latest data available. That’s below a 2000 peak of $42,348, according to the Census Bureau.”

Trump has called student loan debt forgiveness a “money grab” and has bragged that his handpicked Supreme Court justices struck down President Biden’s debt forgiveness plan. 

Daily Mail: “Former President Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis – leading the 2024 Republican field – both went after President Joe Biden for his student loan forgiveness plan. ‘Joe Biden and the Radical Left Democrats have just orchestrated another election enhancing money grab, this time to the tune of $300,000,000,000 – and just like I predicted, it’s coming right out of the pocket of the working-class Americans who are struggling the most!’ Trump said in a statement released Thursday morning.”

Press Release, Donald J. Trump for President: “Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down massive wins for the American people— halting Joe Biden’s unconstitutional student loan gimmick, restoring fairness to the college admissions process, and applying the strongest safeguards to First Amendment rights in a generation. One thing is clear: these wins were only made possible through President Trump’s strong nomination of three distinguished and courageous jurists to the Supreme Court.”

Trump’s child tax credit changes excluded lower-income children, especially children of color.

New York Times: “The Tax Break for Children, Except the Ones Who Need It Most” 

“But children with the greatest economic needs are least likely to benefit.”

“While Republicans say the increase shows concern for ordinary families, 35 percent of children fail to receive the full $2,000 because their parents earn too little, researchers at Columbia University found. A quarter get a partial sum and 10 percent get nothing. Among those excluded from the full credit are half of Latinos, 53 percent of blacks and 70 percent of children with single mothers.”

The number of uninsured Black Americans skyrocketed under Trump.

KFF News: “There were gains in coverage across most racial and ethnic groups between 2019 and 2022 after several years of rising uninsured rates during the Trump Administration.”

Politico: “The Affordable Care Act led to historic reductions in racial disparities in access to health care, but in recent years that progress has stalled as the uninsured rate ticks upward for the overall population, according to a new study from the Commonwealth Fund.

“The uninsured rate among black adults dropped from 24.4 percent in 2013 to 14.4 percent in 2018, while the rate for Hispanic adults decreased from 40.2 percent to 24.9 percent in that time. The rate for whites fell from 14.5 percent to 8.6 percent. However, in 2018, the uninsured rate rose for the first time since Obamacare became law, stalling progress made in addressing racial disparities.”