From a 1995 newspaper article by Thomas F. Roeser. He is a fellow of the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and founder of the Republican Assembly of Illinois.
GOVERNMENT SUBSIDY FEEDS 'FREE MARKET'
"Not long after I became an assistant secretary of commerce under President Nixon, I stumbled upon an amazing discovery.
The big business community (mostly white-owned), which had long extolled 'free enterprise' since the founding of this republic, was hooked far more than I realized on government subsidies.
The Cato Institute has just cataloged 125 programs in the federal budget designed to assist 'business'---meaning, of course, mostly white-owned businesses. When I was sworn in, in 1969, I counted roughly $13 billion worth of subsidies. Cato's figure today is $53.7 billion. (remember this is from 1995!)
The gist of Cato's recommendation is that these subsidies be cut. Very well. But recall that it is mostly white-owned businesses that have thus profited since the founding of the republic.
It was clear that I was picked as assistant secretary for minority enterprise, because as a white conservative, I could be fired by a mostly white administration without prompting a racial furor. One recommendation I made lasted: Take a percentage of federal contracts--I called them 'set-asides'--and give them to minority-owned businesses. I recommended a 10 year program, after which it would be terminated. It has just now been challenged by the Supreme Court, 25 years later.
It was the second proposal, however, that got me fired: Take a tiny percetage of the federal subsidies given to white industry and apportion them to qualifying minority enterprises. The strategy paper containing this recommedation, when sent to the president, resulted in my termination.
No problem. I went back to private industry, happier and wiser than when I had left it. All my life I have been judged a conservative. But I must tell you that whenever big business pays tribute to its growth by mistily referring to itself as 'private enterprise', I am impelled to raise the window sash for fresh air. As a government official, I learned too much.
Let's remember, when we wonder what happened to minority enterprise, that white-owned business has leaned heavily on government as on a crutch, while its leaders pretend, in speeches to chambers of commerce, that they do not.
This has meant that, for the most part, excluding my 'set-asides', only minority-owned businesses have been expected to practice what white pro-business executives so eagerly trumpet as 'free market capitalism'.
April
"Love never dies." Voivodul Vlad Draculea (from Bram Stoker's Dracula-1992)