Mike Bloomberg in Bloomberg.com
On Foreign Policy:
US should lead during global emergency; Trump has not
The coronavirus pandemic is a global emergency, which makes it both necessary and possible to align governments as allies in a war against the disease. But that has not happened. Resources -- materials, information, research -- should have been
marshaled to avoid waste and duplication; they were not. Export controls on essential equipment should have been discussed and agreed to, where necessary; instead, countries imposed them unilaterally. The World Health Organization and other agencies
should have been recognized as vital global assets, staffed and funded accordingly; President Trump, in an attempt to shift blame away from the White House, announced that he would withhold funding to the WHO.
Bloomberg Philanthropies has launched initiatives to help cities manage the pandemic and to support vulnerable low- and middle-income countries, through its partnership with the WHO.
Source: Mike Bloomberg op-ed in Bloomberg News
Apr 28, 2020
On Corporations:
Business have big cash reserves & need no tax cuts
A Wall Street Journal editor asked a room full of CEOs to raise their hands if the corporate tax cut being considered in Congress would lead them to invest more. Very few hands went up. Attending was Gary Cohn, President Donald Trump's economic adviser
and a friend of mine. He asked: "Why aren't the other hands up?"Allow me to answer that: We don't need the money.
Corporations are sitting on a record amount of cash reserves: nearly $2.3 trillion. That figure has been climbing steadily since the
recession ended in 2009, and it's now double what it was in 2001. The reason CEOs aren't investing more of their liquid assets has little to do with the tax rate.
The largest economic challenges we face include a skills crisis that our public schools
are not addressing, crumbling infrastructure that imperils our global competitiveness, wage stagnation coupled with growing wealth inequality, and rising deficits that will worsen as more baby boomers retire.
Source: OpEd by Michael Bloomberg in Bloomberg News
Dec 15, 2017
On Corporations:
Reduce 35% corporate tax by eliminating loopholes
I'm in favor of reducing the 35 percent corporate tax rate as part of a revenue-neutral tax reform effort. Right now, the corporate code is so convoluted, and rates so high relative to other nations (thereby creating an incentive to keep profits
offshore), that the real rates companies pay can be wildly divergent. This is neither fair nor efficient. Eliminating loopholes and reining in the offshoring of profits can and should be done in a revenue-neutral overhaul of the tax code.
Source: OpEd by Michael Bloomberg in Bloomberg News
Dec 15, 2017
On Education:
Help public schools with deductibility of local taxes
The largest economic challenges we face include a skills crisis that our public schools are not addressing, crumbling infrastructure that imperils our global competitiveness, wage stagnation coupled with growing wealth inequality,
and rising deficits that will worsen as more baby boomers retire.The tax bill [passed by Congressional Republicans and signed by President Trump in December 2017] does nothing to address these challenges.
In fact, it makes each of them worse.
EDUCATION: The bill, by limiting the deduction for state and local taxes, will make it harder for the localities to raise money for education. The burden will fall heaviest on cities with poor students,
making it harder for millions of children to escape from poverty--and leaving more and more businesses with fewer qualified job applicants.
Source: OpEd by Michael Bloomberg in Bloomberg News
Dec 15, 2017
On Health Care:
Individual mandate makes insurance affordable for all
By eliminating the requirement that individuals buy health insurance, many young and healthy people will drop out of the marketplace, causing health insurance premiums to rise for everyone else. [The elimination of the individual mandate passed by
Congressional Republicans in December 2017] is nothing more than a backdoor tax increase on health care for millions of middle-class families that will leave them with less disposable income for savings, investment and spending.
Source: OpEd by Michael Bloomberg in Bloomberg News
Dec 15, 2017
On Social Security:
Don't kick the can down the road with retirement funding
The cost of the tax bill [passed by Congressional Republicans and signed by President Trump in December 2017] --$1 trillion to $1.5 trillion--makes it more difficult for taxpayers to afford Medicare and Social Security for the baby boom generation,
which is now hitting retirement. Republicans didn't grapple with those costs. Instead, they kicked the can down the road. Ignoring the bill's price tag, or pretending we needn't worry about deficits,
is like ignoring climate change or pretending we needn't worry about its effects. I'll say one thing for Republicans in Congress: They're consistent.
The tax bill is an economically indefensible blunder that will harm our future. The Republicans in Congress who must surely know it--and who have bucked party leaders before--should vote no.
Source: OpEd by Michael Bloomberg in Bloomberg News
Dec 15, 2017
On Tax Reform:
Tax cuts paying for themselves defies reality
CEOs aren't waiting on a tax cut to "jump-start the economy"--a favorite phrase of politicians who have never run a company--or to hand out raises. It's pure fantasy to think that the tax bill will lead to significantly higher wages and growth, as
Republicans have promised. Had Congress actually listened to executives, or economists who study these issues carefully, it might have realized that. The Treasury Department claimed to have more than 100 professional staffers "working around the clock"
to analyze the tax cut. If true, their hard work must have been suppressed. The flimsy one-page analysis Treasury released--which accepts the White House's reality-defying economic projections in
order to claim that the tax cuts will pay for themselves and then some--is a politically driven document that amounts to economic malpractice. So does the bill itself.
Source: OpEd by Michael Bloomberg in Bloomberg News
Dec 15, 2017
On Tax Reform:
GOP tax bill is an economically indefensible blunder
In effect, the tax bill [passed by Congressional Republicans and signed by President Trump in December 2017] achieves four main things:- It takes money away from schools and students.
- It restricts our ability to invest in infrastructure.
-
It does nothing to boost real wages while making health insurance more expensive.
- It makes it harder to control the costs of Medicare and Social Security without cutting defense and other spending--or further exploding the deficit.
To what end? To hand corporations big tax cuts they don't need, while lowering the tax rate paid by those of us in the top bracket, and allowing the wealthy to shelter more of their estates.The tax bill is an economically indefensible blunder
that will harm our future. The Republicans in Congress who must surely know it--and who have bucked party leaders before--should vote no.
Source: OpEd by Michael Bloomberg in Bloomberg News
Dec 15, 2017
On Technology:
Raising deficits constrains federal infrastructure spending
The largest economic challenges we face include a skills crisis that our public schools are not addressing, crumbling infrastructure that imperils our global competitiveness, wage stagnation coupled with growing wealth inequality, and rising deficits
that will worsen as more baby boomers retire.The tax bill [passed by Congressional Republicans and signed by President Trump in December 2017] does nothing to address these challenges. In fact, it makes each of them worse.
INFRASTRUCTURE: Restricting state and local tax deductions will also mean less local investment for infrastructure, and by raising deficits, the bill will constrain federal infrastructure spending.
Our airports, railways and roads are in desperate need of modernization, and our energy grids are vulnerable and inefficient. Yet spending on those and other needs, which acts as a catalyst for private investment, will become more difficult.
Source: OpEd by Michael Bloomberg in Bloomberg News
Dec 15, 2017
On Welfare & Poverty:
Expand the earned income tax credit to raise real wages
The largest economic challenges we face include a skills crisis that our public schools are not addressing, crumbling infrastructure that imperils our global competitiveness, wage stagnation coupled with growing wealth inequality,
and rising deficits that will worsen as more baby boomers retire.The tax bill [passed by Congressional Republicans and signed by President Trump in December 2017] does nothing to address these challenges.
In fact, it makes each of them worse.
INEQUALITY: If Congress wanted to raise real wages and reward work, there is a simple and proven way to do it: expand the earned income tax credit.
Instead, it seems to believe that lower corporate tax rates will magically lead to higher wages, which fundamentally misunderstands how labor markets work.
Source: OpEd by Michael Bloomberg in Bloomberg News
Dec 15, 2017
On War & Peace:
False arguments justify increase in military spending
The Pentagon received an extra $15 billion in the spending bill that will keep the government open through September. To put it in perspective, that's 1.5 percent of the pool of about $1 trillion that funds the Pentagon and the rest of the national
defense. There won't be intelligent debate on any of these matters if the only subject of conversation in the Pentagon or Congress is a false "readiness" crisis and histrionic warnings about a "hollow force."
Source: OpEd by Michael Bloomberg in Bloomberg News
Jan 25, 2016
Page last updated: Dec 15, 2021