*Billionaire Bob Johnson is said to be frustrated with President Joe Biden’s lack of support of reparations for Foundational Black Americans (FBA).
Johnson unpacked the Biden administration’s troubled Build Back Better plan during a Feb. 1 appearance on CNBC. Critics of the plan claim it fails to include initiatives and programs that aim to close the wealth gap between Black and white Americans.
“Closing the Black wealth gap is not a job. It’s not giving us more consumption money to spend. It’s giving us more access to wealth sustainability,” Johnson, 75, said in an interview on “Squawk Box.”
He added, “What I look at is, what can you do to increase Black wealth? And that means you got to put more capital at the disposal of Black businessmen and women who want to create jobs, create wealth, create growth opportunities,” Johnson said. “That’s what was missing in the Build Back Better Act.”
Johnson, who started the investment firm The RLJ Cos, said the $1.75 trillion Build Back Better bill “was never targeted to how do you close the Black wealth gap.”
In 2020, Johnson called for $14 trillion in reparations for slavery and suggested Black Americans form their own political party.
“Now is the time to go big,” said Johnson on “Squawk Box” at the time.
“Wealth transfer is what’s needed,” he argued. “Think about this. Since 200-plus-years or so of slavery, labor taken with no compensation is a wealth transfer. Denial of access to education, which is a primary driver of accumulation of income and wealth, is a wealth transfer.”
Biden’s Build Back Better plan stalled in December after Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., refused to support it and made clear he would vote against it.
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