[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 116 (Tuesday, July 18, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S10255-S10256]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                  GOVERNMENT SUBSIDY FEEDS FREE MARKET

 Mr. SIMON. Mr. President, Tom Roeser of the Chicago Sun-Times 
is someone I disagree with frequently, even though I respect him.
  On the whole question of assistance for minority businesses, he had a 
column in the Chicago Sun-Times recently that spoke candidly about 
something that provides real insight.
  As we discuss affirmative action and what should be done to assist in 
providing opportunities for minorities, I recommend required reading of 
the Tom Roeser column, and I ask that it be printed in the Record at 
this point.
  The column follows:
               [From the Chicago Sun-Times, July 7, 1995]

               Governmental Subsidy Feeds ``Free Market''

                         (By Thomas F. Roeser)

       Not long after I became an assistant secretary of commerce 
     under President Richard 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.
       The gist of Cato's recommendation is that these subsidies 
     be cut. Very well. But recall that it is mostly white-owned 
     industries 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''--

[[Page S 10256]]
     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 percentage of the federal subsidies given to 
     white industry and apportion them to qualifying minority 
     enterprises. The strategy paper containing this 
     recommendation, 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.''
     

                          ____________________