No doubt Michael Bloomberg throwing his hat in the Democrat Party nomination ring has shaken the field of president “wannabes.” The most impactful result of his entry is dollars: Bloomberg as of February 18, 2020, has already spent $417 million of his own money campaigning. Almost all of that has taken the form of television ads. If U.S. voters had anger for the “first” billionaire to run for the White House, they certainly will have grounds for anger for the second such billionaire.
The Marist Poll the morning of the 18th showed Bloomberg has zoomed into second place among the Democrat presidential candidates behind only Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT). And he’s done that without being on a single primary ballot so far nor has he participated in a party debate. His position in the poll can only be explained by television ads.
That might change soon: Bloomberg with that poll earned a spot on the Democrat debate stage in Las Vegas. I’m certain he is looking forward to the opportunity to rip into his counterparts. But he should be cautious. Those same election foes will certainly go after the former mayor of New York City for a bevy of inappropriate actions he took as mayor and things he has said that were sexist and racist in interviews. We’ll just see how they treat him and how he responds.
As we see the number of Democrats in the race dwindle through campaign exits, it’s about time for us to take a look at the “unified” Democrat Party list of their policy proposals. Before we do that, let me say that what you are about to see and hear are those things that various candidates have promised to Americans if he or she takes up White House occupancy.
The number of them will startle you: 70. But what will shock you into reality is the projected dollar value they will cost the American taxpayers.
Here’s the list. (You might want something close because you’ll certainly become nauseated)
1. Payment of reparations for slavery
2. A new wealth tax of 3% per year on assets
3. Late-term abortion – up to the moment of birth
4. Restoration of voting rights for released felons
5. Another Impeachment of President Trump
6. Raising the top personal income tax rate to 70% (from the present 37%)
7. Refusal to repudiate anti-Semitism by Democrat members of Congress
8. Free college tuition for all
9. Medicare for all (Note: It’s not really Medicare; it’s Medicaid.)
10. Raising the corporate tax rate to 35% (from the present 21%)
11. Abolition of the Electoral College
12. Amnesty for illegal aliens
13. No gun rights for released felons
14. Capping interest rates on all credit cards
15. Packing the Supreme Court by adding up to four new justices
16. Federal jobs guarantee to everyone
17. A minimum wage of $15 per hour
18. Infanticide: “Make the baby comfortable while deciding whether to kill it.”
19. Impeachment of Justice Kavanaugh
20. Voting rights for felons still incarcerated (including Boston terrorist Dzhokhar Tsarnaev)
21. Citizenship (voting rights) for illegal aliens
22. Voting for 16-year olds
23. Green New Deal including no air travel or cows and one car per family
24. Abolish ICE – U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement
25. Deep cuts to defense spending
26. Abolishing senate filibusters
27. Single-payer government health care for all
28. Federal licensing and control of all large corporations
29. Strict new gun control measures including confiscations
30. Federalizing all voter registration
31. Abolishing or changing the method of representation in the U.S. Senate
32. Ending all private health insurance and health insurance companies
33. Reinstituting the Iran nuclear deal
34. Statehood for DC, Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands, Guam: 8 new senators; 14 new electoral votes
35. Tearing down existing walls on our southwest border with Mexico
36. Raising the estate tax rate to 77% (from the present 40%)
37. Rejoining the Paris Climate Accord
38. Raising the payroll tax by 2.4 points – equivalent to 15%
39. Means-testing Social Security
40. Taxing capital gains as ordinary income
41. Removing all caps from the payroll tax
42. Taxing unrealized capital gains each year
43. Jailing corporate executives for regulatory violations
44. A cash distribution of $1,000 per month to everyone
45. Forgiveness of all student loan debt – $1.5 trillion
46. Federal payment to teachers of $315 billion over 10 years
47. Outlawing all state right-to-work laws
48. Increase fuel economy standards for all cars
49. Halt all energy leases on federal land
50. Spending $5 trillion (unspecified) to control emissions
51. Opposition to nuclear energy
52. Creation of new Americorps – to plant trees on marginal land
53. Prohibiting the private practice of medicine (Medicare for America bill)
54. Federal licensing of all firearms – must be renewed every 5 years
55. Abolition of payday loans – by mandating ultra-low interest rates
56. Have the USPS (postal service) make low-interest loans to consumers
57. The imposition of a VAT – a value-added tax on the entire U.S. economy
58. Added 7% corporate tax on reported income higher than taxable income
59. Free government-provided health care for all illegal aliens
60. Legalization of recreational marijuana throughout the United States
61. Require companies to obtain equal pay certificate from the US EEOC
62. Dictate national paid leave policy for the entire private sector
63. Mandate federal preclearance for states to pass any new abortion laws
64. Federal taxpayer funding of abortions: the repeal of the “Hyde Amendment”
65. Breakup Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon
66. New exit tax of 40% of assets for any American giving up citizenship
67. The federal government pays all rent for anyone in excess of 30% of income
68. Abolishing all private prison management companies
69. Free child care, pre-school, college and 100% student loan forgiveness
70. New promises are being added each and every week; it is hard to keep up.
What Will All The “Big Three” Above Cost Taxpayers?
Medicare For All:
$32.6 Trillion over 10 years. (From Vermont’s libertarian Policy Center) According to the Mercatus Center at George Mason University in Virginia, doubling federal individual and corporate income tax receipts would not cover the full cost.
The Green New Deal:
The Green New Deal may tally between $51 trillion and $93 trillion over 10-years, concludes American Action Forum, which is run by Douglas Holtz-Eakin, who directed the non-partisan CBO from 2003 to 2005.
That includes between $8.3 trillion and $12.3 trillion to meet the plan’s call to eliminate carbon emissions from the power and transportation sectors and between $42.8 trillion and $80.6 trillion for its economic agenda including providing jobs and health care for all. (click the link for more details)
https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/5731829/Ocasio-Cortez-Green-New-Deal-Resolution.pdf
Forgive Student Debt (Federal Only):
Cost $1.6 Trillion Dollars owed by 45 million Americans
PLUS: Free College Tuition will cost $47 billion annually for Federal Government and $23 Billion/year for States
How to pay for it?
The current proposal, which costs $2.2 trillion over 10 years, will be fully paid for by a tax on Wall Street speculation similar to what exists in dozens of countries around the world,” Sen. Bernie Sanders said.
The “College for all Plan” outlined a “Robin Hood Tax” that would impose a 0.5% tax on stock trades, a 0.1% fee on bonds and a 0.005% fee on derivatives.
Bloomberg Brings What to the Table?
The three-time New York City mayor, (he changed the NYC term limit law so he could serve the third term) is reportedly in the top-10 of the wealthiest Americans. He owns Bloomberg Network, a financial news cable network that has been around for a long time. His largess comes from the network, his financial company, and personal investments. By any measure, he’s a wealthy guy.
Bloomberg is best known for his personal controversy. As mayor, he assumed control of the controversial “Stop and Frisk” law in the city that allowed police to stop any person based solely on suspicion and search them based only on their suspicions as well.
The minority communities went crazy! They questioned the practice that had been implemented during the Giuliani Administration. Under Giuliani, there were specific requirements of the police before stopping a person that Bloomberg in his administration ignored. The New York police before Bloomberg annually-averaged 100,000 “Stop and Frisks.” Under Bloomberg’s 12-years as Mayor in which his policy was to authorize police to stop and frisking with no requirement of a “just cause” to do so that existed under Giuliani, that annual number went to 600,000 “Stop and Frisks. The policy was extremely divisive throughout Manhattan at best, viewed as racist at worst.
But that was not the Bloomberg “lightning rod” for which New Yorkers best remember him. He passed a regulation on the size of fountain drinks that could be sold in the Big Apple. That, of course, made national and international headlines.
I remember when that happened and thought, “If customers want a Big Gulp that holds 40 ounces of drink, why don’t they just buy two 20-ounce drinks?”
Regarding other Bloomberg ideas that will soon burst into the 2020 primary discussions, they are extremely leftist and are just shy of being purely socialist. We’ll spare you now, because when “Mini-Mike” hits today’s debate stage in Las Vegas, that old pop song “The Heat is On,” will divulge Bloomberg’s “current” status on issues along with numerous cataloged videos of his past that will show us all his “former” statuses on those same issues.
Summary
The “Mini-Mike” reference for Mr. Bloomberg mentioned above is NOT original: President Trump labeled Bloomberg with that moniker.
I think the Democrat Party field is about to take a big hit: no one has the financial staying-power to take-on the “other” New York billionaire. It’s probably going to come down to Bernie Sanders and Michael Bloomberg.
Each of those has plenty of baggage for President Trump to go after — all sorts of low-hanging fruit. But remember: there’s a Democrat Party Convention between the primaries and November 3. There will only be one Democrat in the field after Milwaukee’s convention.
Do you know what will be the final straw to determine which Dem will face the President? Hillary Clinton! She’s praying for a “brokered” convention.
What does “brokered convention mean?
A brokered convention can occur during a presidential election when a political party fails to choose a nominee on the first round of delegate voting at the party’s nominating convention. Once the first ballot, or vote, has occurred, and no candidate has a majority of the delegates’ votes, the convention is then considered brokered.
After that, the nomination is decided through a process of alternating political horse-trading— delegate vote trading—and additional re-votes. In this circumstance, all regular delegates are “released” and are able to switch their allegiance to a different candidate before the next round of balloting. It is hoped that this extra privilege extended to the delegates will result in a re-vote yielding a clear majority of delegates for one candidate.
The Hillary camp prays that if, for instance, neither Bernie or Mike on the first ballot receives enough votes to claim a victory. Every delegate would then be released from their primary or caucus vote obligation. Hillary Clinton would then allow herself to be nominated. Her hope would be that enough of the delegates that were previously committed to Bernie or Mike would switch to vote for her in sufficient numbers to give her the Democrat Party nomination to run again for President.
“If” that scen
ario should happen, and “if” Hillary were able to pull an upset victory to take on Donald Trump for a second time, I will be torn. I’d find myself in something of a conundrum: part of me would love to see Hillary struggle to present substance sufficient for Americans to vote for her instead of President Trump. As proficient with language as she is would not be sufficient, in my opinion.
The other part of me would be disappointed. I’d like to see just once two New York billionaires going one-on-one with a pending knock out in the wind.
If Americans think Donald Trump is a bit caustic in his speech now, wait until Bloomberg who has a similar background turns-on HIS caustic speech. “Mini-Mike” in that scenario may find himself on his back on the debate stage with a 6-3 Queens billionaire on his chest!
I’ve thought it over: I’d hate to see a grown man knock-out a woman on national television. It should be “Donald v. Mike” in the ring!
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#s 4 & 13
I’ve enjoyed my expanded “free” time as I have had opportunity to read your articles more consistently. You base your writing on facts, not rumors, and your sources have been impressive.
I shake my head at the lack of awareness of progressive supporters and the above sites numbers show this.
#4-restoration of voting rights for felons. I mainly agree with this. Your sentence being completed, your debt paid to society, you should be allowed to vote. If that is unacceptable for a majority of Americans, increase sentencing and the completion of sentence.
#13-no gun rights. Ditto on debt paid to society.
The hypocrisy of progressive individuals to essentially state we trust you to choose the path for hundreds of millions of people but not trust you as a potential threat is obvious. This is one of many examples of hypocrisy that is SO PAINFULLY OBVIOUS that I shake my head at the blind acceptance of them.
Oh, and since I support voting but not the stance on guns, I am sure that I hate children and have no place in the Democratic Party.
Bradley:
Glad you’re aboard. And thanks for sharing your thoughts with us. I never take for granted what a TruthNewsNet partner feels about our content. Your opinion is important. Keep reading, listening, and giving us your thoughts!
Dan