Please Mayor Bloomberg, Don’t do it

Instead, how about an effort to end homelessness?

So now Michael Bloomberg is considering a run for the presidency. Please, Mr. Mayor, do us all a favor and un-consider.

I’m sorry. I’ve had about enough of billionaires with political aspirations. Look, I admire what many of these guys have accomplished in life. Bill Gates and Warren Buffett have donated billions of their fortunes to worthy causes. And Bloomberg himself has donated to many charities. I do not begrudge them for making a ton of money. It’s not their success that turns me off — whining about paying a bit more in taxes? Oh yeah, that does it.

Have we not learned anything at all? The idea that people can dip into their massive fortunes to, in a sense, try to buy themselves into political office is unseemly and just plain wrong. It’s something we need to fix as part of an overall surgical reboot of our inane campaign finance laws. But that’s for another post.

We do have one billionaire already in the race, Tom Steyer, whom I admire him very much. He and Bloomberg, for that matter, are spot-on when it comes to gun safety and the environment. And Steyer has been out front saying he’d be willing to pay more in taxes. But recent reports indicate that he’s already spent a mind-boggling $43 million of his own money running for president. He’s currently polling at about 2% in most polls. That’s not exactly a ringing endorsement of his candidacy.

People are tired of the wealthy and well-connected, using their big bucks to try and gain favor. Currently, over 71% of Democratic voters are happy with the current crop of candidates. That’s a healthy majority if you ask me. We do not need another rich guy, a Wall Street one at that, entering the campaign. And why, exactly, is Bloomberg contemplating a run in the first place?

The word is that he’s not happy with the current candidates. He’s supposedly not convinced any of them can beat Donald Trump. Sorry, I’m not buying it.

Isn’t it ironic that on the heels of Elizabeth Warren announcing her wealth tax to help pay for her Medicare For All proposal, Michael Bloomberg decides he’s actively considering a run? Bloomberg and his ilk are scared out of their minds if Elizabeth Warren ever sniffs the presidency. You hear it from the Wall Street insiders, and the main-stream media loves to point out how the rich aren’t fond of the Senator from Massachusetts.

But, in my view, who gives a damn what these guys think? If I’m not mistaken, some of the same people who helped bring on the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, are trying to tell the rest of us how awful an Elizabeth Warren presidency will be. They nearly wrecked the damn economy because of their greed and corruption, but I’m supposed to listen to them because they know what’s best for the American economy? Give me a break.

Warren understands what these guys do to game the system. And that’s what has them scared. She knows how they’ve taken advantage of the rules, and a significant part of her platform deals with how she’s going to fix it. She’s got specific and detailed plans to do it. That, and taxing their wealth, is what’s driving this train of fear.

Again, to be clear, Bloomberg and Steyer have used much of their money to promote just causes. We should commend them for that. Both of these guys have put their money where their mouths are when it comes to gun safety initiatives and environmental policy.

But there’s so much more they could do. Instead of pouring millions into a run for the presidency, that frankly will not be successful, how about a joint venture to deal with homelessness? Or our deteriorating inner cities? Or our out of balance education system? Wouldn’t money allocated for these pressing issues in our society be money well spent?

I don’t know. Sometimes I think the egos of some of these people get the best of them. Perhaps making all that money isn’t enough anymore. Maybe they need something else to make them feel better when they wake up in the morning. Maybe they see how a ‘fake’ rich guy managed to win the presidency and think they could do better. Hell, who couldn’t do better than what we have now?

Here’s hoping that the former Mayor of New York City decides against a run for president. We don’t need you to do that, Mr. Mayor. What we want you to do is continue fighting for gun safety regulations and a clean environment. And while you’re at it, how about throwing a few billion to fight the homeless problem?

Also, how about vowing to fight hard and make sure Trump never sees another term? How about declaring, as Tom Steyer did, to back whoever the Democrats end up nominating? Again, your vast fortune could do so much to help so many people. And if you help beat Trump, you’re saving democracy as we know it. How can that not be a worthy cause?

I think most of us would agree that whiney billionaires aren’t sympathetic figures. I remember when President Obama had the nerve to call a few of them ‘fat cats’ amid the financial crisis. My God, you’d think he stole their school lunches from them. The outrage from the Wall Street crowd was beyond embarrassing. And just the other day, billionaire Leon Cooperman cried on live TV when confronted with Senator Warren’s plan to slap a wealth tax on him.

I took a walk on the beach the other day and noticed a few tents where some homeless people set up camp. I see them quite a bit down there, and unfortunately, this is their life. They stay for a few days, then off they go somewhere else—another city, another town perhaps. Then I thought of Mr. Cooperman crying about a wealth tax. I thought of Bill Gates not ruling out voting for Trump if Warren was the nominee, apparently worried that she was coming for his $107 billion fortune.

Spare me the self-righteous indignation, please. Excuse my bitterness, but I’m through with these guys. We do not need, nor do we want another billionaire running for president.

Mayor Bloomberg? Thanks, but no thanks.