page_title: Michael Bloomberg
section_title: Political positions
hierarchical_section_title: Michael Bloomberg / Political positions
context_page_description: Michael Rubens Bloomberg KBE is an American businessman, politician, philanthropist, and author. He is the majority owner and co-founder of Bloomberg L.P.. He was the mayor of New York City from 2002 to 2013, and was briefly a candidate in the 2020 Democratic presidential primaries.
  Bloomberg grew up in Medford, Massachusetts and graduated from Johns Hopkins University and Harvard Business School. He began his career at the securities brokerage Salomon Brothers before forming his own company in 1981. That company, Bloomberg L.P., is a financial information, software and media firm that is known for its Bloomberg Terminal. Bloomberg spent the next twenty years as its chairman and CEO. In 2020, Forbes ranked him as the sixteenth-richest person in the world, with an estimated net worth of $48 billion as of 7 April 2020 and as of 21 July 2020, Bloomberg ranked 8th in Forbes 400 with net worth $60.1 billion. Since signing The Giving Pledge, Bloomberg has given away $8.2 billion.
  Bloomberg was elected the 108th mayor of New York City. First elected in 2001, he held office for three consecutive terms, winning re-election in 2005 and in 2009.
context_section_description: Bloomberg was a lifelong Democrat until 2001, when he switched to the Republican Party to run for Mayor. He switched to an independent in 2007 and registered again as a Democrat in October 2018. In 2004, he endorsed the re-election of George W. Bush and spoke at the 2004 Republican National Convention. He endorsed Barack Obama's re-election in 2012, endorsed Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election, and spoke at the 2016 Democratic National Convention.
  As Mayor of New York, Bloomberg supported government initiatives in public health and welfare. This included tobacco control efforts (including an increase in the legal age to purchase tobacco products, a ban on smoking in indoor workplaces, and an increase in the cigarette tax); the elimination of the use of artificial trans fats in restaurants; and bans on all flavored tobacco and e-cigarette products including menthol flavors. Bloomberg also launched an unsuccessful effort to  ban on certain large (more than 16 fluid ounce) sugary sodas at restaurants and food service establishments in the city.  These initiatives were supported by public health advocates but were criticized by some as "nanny state" policies.
  Over his career, Bloomberg has "mingled support for progressive causes with more conservative positions on law enforcement, business regulation and school choice." Bloomberg supports  gun-control measures, abortion rights, same-sex marriage, and a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants. He advocates for a public health insurance option that he has called "Medicare for all for people that are uncovered" rather than a universal single-payer healthcare system. He is concerned about climate change and has touted his mayoral efforts to reduce greenhouse gases. Bloomberg supported the Iraq War and opposed creating a timeline for withdrawing troops. Bloomberg has sometimes embraced the use of surveillance in efforts to deter crime and protect against terrorism.
  During and after his tenure, he was a staunch supporter of stop-and-frisk. In November 2019, Bloomberg apologized for supporting it. He advocates reversing many of the Trump tax cuts. His own tax plan includes implementing a 5 percent surtax on incomes above $5 million a year and would raise federal revenue by $5 trillion over a decade. He opposes a wealth tax, saying that it would likely be found unconstitutional. He has also proposed more stringent financial regulations that include tougher oversight for big banks, a financial transactions tax, and stronger consumer protections.
  Bloomberg has stated that running as a Democrat – not an independent – is the only path he sees to defeating Donald Trump, saying: "In 2020, the great likelihood is that an independent would just split the anti-Trump vote and end up re-electing the President. That's a risk I refused to run in 2016 and we can't afford to run it now."
caption: Bloomberg delivering a speech in 2004
exif: {}