Voter's Edge California Voter Guide
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Tuesday March 3, 2020 — Primary Election
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United States

United States of America — Democratic PartyCandidate for President

Photo of Michael R. Bloomberg

Michael R. Bloomberg

Former Mayor of New York City
701,803 votes (12.1%)
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My Top 3 Priorities

  • Make health care more affordable and universally available by building on the ACA, while substantially reducing health care costs and expanding access to health services.
  • Tackle climate change by rebuilding American communities and infrastructure with 100% clean energy technology, reducing carbon pollution 50% by 2030 and to net-zero carbon by 2050 or sooner.
  • Enact common-sense gun safety laws that will save lives.

Experience

Experience

Profession:Former Mayor of New York City
Co-founder and owner, Bloomberg LP (1981–current)
Mayor, New York City — Elected position (2002–2013)

Education

Harvard Business School MBA (1966)
Johns Hopkins University B.S., electrical engineering (1964)

Biography

Mike Bloomberg is a middle class kid who worked his way through college.  After getting laid off at age 39, he started a company from scratch and built it into a business that today employs 20,000 people.  He gives virtually all of the company’s profits to charity, to support causes he is passionate about, including gun violence, climate change, education, women’s rights, and health care.  He served three terms as Mayor of New York and created nearly a half-million jobs, expanded health insurance to 700,000 people, reduced the city’s carbon footprint, and cut the incarceration rate by nearly 40%.  Now he’s running to unite America and start getting big things done.

One of Mike Bloomberg’s earliest memories took place around his family’s dining room table in Medford, Massachusetts. His father – a bookkeeper at a local dairy who never earned more than $6,000 a year in his life – sat down and wrote out a $25 or $50 check to the NAACP. When Mike asked him why, his father responded: “Because discrimination against anyone is a threat to everyone.” With that simple act and that simple explanation, Mike’s father taught him one of his most important lessons: We’re all in this together – and if you have an opportunity to help, you have an obligation to act.

The sense of duty and common purpose that he first learned from his father has guided Mike Bloomberg throughout his life and career as an entrepreneur, philanthropist, and job creator who served as mayor of New York City for 12 years.

It’s what led him to become one of America’s most fearless and effective voices on urgent issues including climate change, gun violence, public health, and education. It’s why he has given $10 billion to support vital causes in the U.S. and around the world, and why he has pledged to give away nearly all of his money in his lifetime. And it’s what compels him today to run for president of the United States.

Mike understands the unprecedented risks we face from the current administration and what it will take to get our country back on track. Mike Bloomberg built one of the world’s most successful companies from scratch and guided America’s largest city to new heights after the attacks of 9/11 and through the shocks of the global economic crisis.

Mike is a proven leader with an unmatched track record in business and government. He can unite the Democratic Party, bridge partisan differences, and get Washington back to solving problems – and getting the big things done for Americans.

Mike Bloomberg grew up in a middle-class family outside of Boston. He wasn’t born into wealth or social connections. His drive to succeed, love of work, and passion for service began at a young age. When he was 12 years old he became one of the youngest Eagle Scouts in history. To help pay his way through Johns Hopkins University, he worked in a parking lot and took out government loans.

His father died when he was in college and his mother worked as a secretary. After working his way through college and Harvard Business School, Mike then took an entry-level job with a financial services firm and worked his way up to partner, eventually overseeing its technology and information systems.

And then, one day in 1981, he was laid off. It turned out to be a moment that would define the rest of his life.

The next day, Mike decided to start his own company, beginning in a one-room office with a groundbreaking idea far ahead of its time: a desktop computer that connected investors to a vast network of information and data. If Mike’s new business could distribute that information widely, it would democratize financial information, empowering investors and smaller firms and result in dramatically improved returns for pensioners and retirees.

People told him it was a waste of time and that his idea would never work. But Mike believed in the idea and worked long days and nights. Today, Bloomberg LP employs some 20,000 talented and creative people who share Mike’s passion for innovation and customer service.

Questions & Answers

Questions from League of Women Voters of California (3)

What financing method(s) would you support to repair or improve roads, rails, ports, airports, the electrical grid, and other infrastructure in the U.S.?
Answer from Michael R. Bloomberg:

Mike will set national infrastructure goals and require states to prioritize maintenance and repair. Mike’s plan will create the first-ever national map that traces all road, rail, transit, air, and freight routes, to identify where gaps and obstacles exist, and will leverage data from both the public and private sectors to make smarter decisions on transportation investments and safety.

Mike’s plan will fix 240,000 miles of roads and 16,000 bridges in four years, and dedicate $850 billion over 10 years to building and upgrading roads, bridges, dams and other infrastructure — helping to create millions of jobs. Mike will also establish a $1 billion annual “pothole” fund to make emergency repairs and will triple annual federal investment in public transit, including $12 billion per year for a new operating assistance program to improve service and attract new users.

Mike’s plan includes the first-ever national effort to reduce road fatalities. By implementing smarter road design standards, better rules, and stronger enforcement, his plan can save 20,000 lives by 2025 t. Mike’s plan will also bring safe, clean drinking water to communities across America, starting with cities in crisis such as Flint and Newark.

Mike’s plan will invest in clean energy and a modern electrical grid to support it. He’ll update our transportation system to reduce carbon pollution and save families money, by investing in transit and making pollution-free electric vehicles affordable and convenient to charge. And he’ll upgrade America’s building stock to reduce pollution and lower energy costs for families and business owners.

 

What programs or legislation, if any, would you support to help Americans of all ages to secure affordable health care?
Answer from Michael R. Bloomberg:

As mayor of New York City, Mike expanded health care for working families and improved care for seniors. The number of New Yorkers without health insurance fell nearly 40% from 2001 to 2013, and the number of uninsured children fell by 72%. As president, Mike will lower drug costs for Americans of all ages by reforming Medicare, capping out-of-pocket costs for beneficiaries and working with Congress to authorize Medicare to negotiate prices with drug companies.

Mike will create a Medicare-like public option – a health plan that will be administered by the federal government but paid for by customer premiums. He will improve consumer choice and increase competition in the private insurance market, pushing down premiums for all. His plan will allow people of modest means who buy the public option to be eligible for the same subsidies that would apply on the health insurance exchanges.

Mike’s plan will reverse the current administration’s attempts at sabotage. It will expand enrollment efforts, restrict the sale of health plans that don’t meet ACA standards, and defend the law against politically motivated lawsuits. It will expand subsidies to cap premiums at 8.5% of a household’s income. It will create a permanent reinsurance program that, by helping insurers with the largest claims, will reduce customer premiums roughly 10%. It will also expand Medicare to include an optional policy covering dental, hearing and vision care, and require all states to cover oral health services for adults in Medicaid.

Mike will cap out-of-network charges at 200% of Medicare rates to bring prices down.

Mike will work with Congress to authorize the secretary of Health and Human Services to negotiate drug prices with pharmaceutical companies. His plan will cap drug prices at 120% of the average in other advanced nations – and this cap will apply to consumers with public or private insurance. Mike will ban drug company payments to the people who make decisions at pharmacies so that drug makers compete on the cost and value of their products – not on the amount of money they pay to get preferential treatment. Mike will also reform the Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit to encourage greater competition and cap beneficiaries’ annual out-of-pocket costs at $2,000.

Not only will Mike prioritize helping Americans of all ages, he will make sure that those living in rural communities can access the health care they need. Mike will change rural hospital payment models so that they receive a fixed, capitated annual budget, to make them less dependent on the number of patients who walk through the door. Mike will double federal funding for Community Health Centers and increase funding for the National Health Service Corps, which offers loan repayment and scholarship opportunities for doctors who practice in high-need areas. Mike will also expand broadband access to rural areas and boost Medicare coverage of telemedicine services, to connect rural Americans with additional providers.

 

Describe an immigration policy that you would support if presented to the President.
Answer from Michael R. Bloomberg:

Mike’s plan will protect Dreamers and TPS holders and create an earned pathway to citizenship for the 11 million undocumented. Mike will reform Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP), implementing sensible immigration enforcement priorities that promote public safety and national security. Mike will also end construction of the current administration's ineffective wall, invest in smart security measures and upgrade our ports of entry to protect the border and increase efficiency.

Mike’s plan will modernize our legal immigration system while protecting and investing in U.S. workers—and will protect all workers, including immigrants, from exploitation and labor violations. Mike will make employment-based immigration more responsive to economic conditions and reduce the backlogs that keep families apart. He will implement policies that attract job-creating innovators and entrepreneurs and create new place-based visas that allow localities to address unmet needs.

Mike will rescind the current administration's disgraceful travel ban, end family separations at the border, establish rigorous safeguards for children, and promote alternatives to detention for individuals and families who pose no threat to public safety. Mike will set the annual refugee resettlement target at 125,000 and also restore fairness and timeliness to the asylum process. And he will honor and protect immigrant service members, veterans and their families.

Mike will encourage eligible immigrants to become U.S. citizens by clearing the naturalization backlog, reducing the naturalization fee and investing in community-based efforts to promote citizenship, including English and civics courses and immigration legal services. Mike will create a federal Office of New Americans to support the integration of newcomers, offer CDBG funding for projects that bring promote cohesion and community-building in places experiencing demographic change, and launch a national competition to support job-creating entrepreneurs.

 

Who gave money to this candidate?

Contributions

Total money raised: $1,090,140,019

Top contributors that gave money to support the candidate, by organization:

1
Michael R. Bloomberg
$1,089,224,790
2
Employees of Bloomberg LP
$8,707
3
Employees of Mike Bloomberg 2020, Inc.
$1,636
4
Employees of Drake Anderson
$1,548
5
Employees of Johns Hopkins University
$1,280

More information about contributions

By State:

New York 100.00%
New Jersey 0.00%
California 0.00%
Florida 0.00%
Other 0.00%
100.00%

By Size:

Large contributions (99.92%)
Small contributions (0.08%)
99.92%

By Type:

From organizations (0.00%)
From individuals (100.00%)
100.00%
Source: MapLight analysis of data from the Federal Election Commission.

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