Michael Bloomberg will win the Democratic nomination because his Democratic opponents are idiots. He will defeat Trump because Trump is a moron. This Wall Street Journal article is about Bloomberg's ideas. Bloomberg will be the best president this country every had.

“Too many Republicans wrongly blame immigrants for our problems, and they stand in the way of action on climate change and gun violence. Meanwhile, many Democrats wrongly blame the private sector for our problems, and they stand in the way of action on education reform and deficit reduction.”
—Michael Bloomberg, 2016 Democratic National Convention

BUSINESS

Wall Street Journal - With Bloomberg in the Wings, Here’s Where He Stands

The billionaire has staked out positions on several high-profile issues that matter to business.

Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who is laying the groundwork for entering the Democratic presidential primary in the spring, takes the stage during the third day of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia in July 2016.

By Theo Francis

November 13, 2019

Here comes Michael Bloomberg, easily the most anticipated business leader to (nearly) throw his hat into the Democratic field. The question is whether the billionaire businessman-turned-politician arrives too late, and whether the party’s primary voters are interested in the positions he brings with him.

The three-term mayor of New York — running twice as a Republican, once as an independent — who previously built the financial data and news empire that bears his name, said in May that he wasn’t running. He still hasn’t formally declared his candidacy beyond filing to run in a few states with early registration deadlines.

A Bloomberg campaign arguably offers Democratic voters a splashy business-friendly vision to compete with what many business leaders see as demonization by Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders and the more liberal wing of the Democratic party.

At the same time, Mr. Bloomberg has staked out positions over the years that may fit less comfortably with the Democratic faithful or with the business community that otherwise could be his natural ally. Here’s where Mr. Bloomberg stands on high-profile issues that matter to business, based on prior statements:

TRADE

Mr. Bloomberg favors trade and has called on executives to push for global coordination. “While chief executives are not diplomats, they can be voices for cooperation,” he wrote in a September 2017 column. He has also urged automakers to voluntarily improve vehicle safety in developing markets — and governments there to mandate it. Asked about competition with China in 2017, he told CBS News: “There’s no reason we have to fall behind unless we stop reaching out to the world.”

TAXES

He dubbed the 2017 tax overhaul a “Trillion-Dollar Blunder” backed by “reality-defying economic projections.” He predicted limits on deductions for state and local tax payments will hurt education and infrastructure funding, as would rising federal deficits. “The tax bill is an economically indefensible blunder that will harm our future,” he added.

He has, however, also slammed Ms. Warren’s so-called wealth tax as likely unconstitutional because it technically isn’t an income tax and he compared it to socialism and wealth destruction in Venezuela. MarketWatch estimates Mr. Bloomberg would pay $3 billion next year in wealth taxes under Ms. Warren’s plan.

CLIMATE

Mr. Bloomberg supports moving the U.S. to 100% clean energy, including an effort to phase out coal plants, which he calls outdated. But in a March column he ripped Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Green New Deal as having no chance of success on Capitol Hill because the Senate won’t pass it. Urging compromise, he wrote, “Mother Nature does not wait on our political calendar, and neither can we.”

TECHNOLOGY

Mr. Bloomberg has criticized big tech companies for their unwillingness to cooperate with government in a variety of instances, a position at odds with that of many civil-liberties-oriented Democrats. In a June 2018 opinion piece calling Google’s decision — after employee protests — to drop a federal Defense Department contract “a Grave Error,” Mr. Bloomberg also criticized Apple Inc. for refusing to help federal investigators unlock the iPhone of mass-shooting suspects in San Bernardino, Calif.

EDUCATION

As mayor, Mr. Bloomberg clashed publicly with New York’s teachers’ union, something that could haunt him in union-friendly areas. He has advocated for charter schools, more personnel freedom for principals and better tools to remove failing teachers. But in April 2018 he wrote an opinion piece with Randi Weingarten, who led teachers in those bargaining battles and now heads the American Federation of Teachers. In addition to hiring reforms, they touted doubling the city’s education budget and increasing teacher pay 43%. “Teachers play an essential role, and their wages and benefits must reflect that,” they wrote.

HEALTH CARE

Mr. Bloomberg has called on Democrats to revamp the Affordable Care Act without worrying about calling it a replacement, and on Republicans to work with Democrats. He also called it a mistake for the 2017 GOP tax bill to eliminate a rule requiring individuals to buy health insurance, saying costs for others would rise as young, healthy people dropped coverage. “This is nothing more than a backdoor tax increase on health care for millions of middle-class families,” he said in December 2017.

Can He Win in the Democratic Primary?

Political analysts at Raymond James write that Mr. Bloomberg “does not have a clear path” to the nomination. He has also staked positions on non-business issues that could pose problems: He oversaw New York’s controversial stop-and-frisk police policy, for example, and his high-profile support for gun control could hurt him in Midwestern and Southern states.

The risk for business-focused Democrats is that Mr. Bloomberg, rather than siphoning votes from Ms. Warren and Mr. Sanders, splits the moderate Democratic vote otherwise leaning toward former Vice President Joe Biden and South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg.

Moreover, past “white knights” for business interests have stumbled after late entries, including retired general Wesley Clark in the Democratic contest in 2004 and both Fred Thomson and Rick Perry on the Republican side in 2008. “All did so earlier than Mr. Bloomberg would do,” Keefe Bruyette & Woods analysts Brian Gardner and Michael Michaud wrote last week, “and none of them fared well.”