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Mike Bloomberg

Biography

  • CEO of Bloomberg LP
  • Founder of Bloomberg Philanthropies
  • Former Wall Street executive
  • Three-term mayor of New York City from 2002-2013

Signature policies

Economy

  • All-In Economy: fund research into new industries, increase work benefits, and improve job training
  • Raise minimum wage to $15
  • Comprehensive financial reform policy
  • Strengthen banking regulations and enforce prosecutions of financial crimes more strictly

Gun Control

  • Require point-of-sale background checks
  • Policies that create paper trail of gun owners
  • Close "boyfriend loophole" and and pass federal red flag laws
  • Spend $100 million annually on supporting local gun violence programs
  • Ban assault weapons
  • Repeal immunity laws protecting gun manufacturers and dealers
  • Declare gun violence a public emergency and allocate more funding

DOMESTIC POLICIES

Climate

  • Make wildfire resilience a top priority of the U.S. Forest Service by providing additional funding and investing in new technology to detect and mitigate the impact of fires
  • Transition to clean energy: 80% clean energy nationwide by 2028
  • Invest in communities that have been impacted by coal pollution or the transition to clean energy
  • Create realistic, but quick transition to 100% clean energy

Health Care

  • Create a Medicare-like public option to compete with private companies
  • Expand enrollment for the Affordable Care Act
  • Cap health care prices and ban surprise medical bills

Criminal Justice

  • Address financial injustice in the legal system: fund $2.5 billion over 10 years for public defense
  • Reduce incarceration by 50% by 2030 and promote the use of alternatives to prison pioneered in New York City
  • Increase funding for local organizations that address the injustices in the legal system for minorities

Education

  • Cutting the cap on student-loan payments by 50% and forgiving loans tax-free after 20 years
  • Direct investments to improve college attendance rates among minorities and lower-income students

Policies abroad

Immigration

  • Co-funds advocacy group called Partnership for a New American Economy (pushes lawmakers to protect "dreamers," undocumented immigrants who arrived in the US as children)
  • Wants to rescind Trump’s travel ban
  • Shift the funds from Trump’s wall to smarter, less extreme security measures

Foreign Policy

  • Supported the 2003 US invasion of Iraq.
  • Willing to consider military force for a humanitarian intervention, to pre-empt an Iranian/North Korean missile test, and to protect oil supplies
  • Supports the U.S.'s level of aid with Israel
  • Against the B.D.S. movement, which according to him, undermines one of the U.S.’s most important allies and the only democracy in the Middle East

Controversies

  • Bloomberg has faced criticism that he cannot carry out his policies, because they run directly against his interests as a billionaire
  • As mayor, Bloomberg implemented the stop-and-frisk policy, which disproportionately affected people of color. He defended the policy for years before apologizing last year
  • Pattern of crude and insensitive comments towards women, the LGBTQ+ community, and minorities

Sources: Mike Bloomberg 2020, Axios,

Photo Credits: Mike Bloomberg/Gage Skidmore/Flickr/CC BY-SA 2.0; Mayor Bloomberg, Lionel Barber and John Ridding (8741690060)/Grace Villamil/Wikimedia Commons/CC BY 2.0;