Reports indicate that former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is preparing the paperwork to qualify for the Democratic presidential primary in at least one state. This news comes on the heels of increasing speculation that both Eric Holder and Hillary Clinton could join the race as late entries.
Why are a growing number of Democratic politicians mulling a presidential run?
Readers likely know the answer. Many Democrats don’t believe that their current front runner — Sen. Elizabeth Warren — can defeat Donald Trump.
Sen. Warren made the political calculation to hitch her wagon to the socialist policies of Bernie Sanders. That may play well to a large swath of primary voters, but it won’t bode well in the general election. Warren has already proposed over $20 trillion in tax hikes while dodging questions on whether the middle class will have to pay more to fund her big-government proposals.
Here are some recent quotes on Warren’s policies.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Warren’s anti-trust platform:
You have someone like Elizabeth Warren who thinks that the right answer is to break up [Big Tech firms]… if she gets elected president, then I would bet that we will have a legal challenge, and I would bet that we will win the legal challenge. And does that still suck for us? Yeah. I mean, I don’t want to have a major lawsuit against our own government. … But look, at the end of the day, if someone’s going to try to threaten something that existential, you go to the mat and you fight.
Microsoft Founder Bill Gates on Warren’s wealth tax:
I’ve paid over $10 billion in taxes. … I’ve paid more than anyone in taxes, but I’m glad to — if I’d had to pay $20 billion, it’s fine. But when you say I should pay $100 billion, then I’m starting to do a little math about what I have left over.
If there was any doubt that Democrats view Warren’s economics platform as a major liability, longtime Bloomberg aide Howard Wolfson had this to say on the former mayor’s entry:
We now need to finish the job and ensure that Trump is defeated — but Mike is increasingly concerned that the current field of candidates is not well positioned to do that.
If Democrats allow the 2020 election to be a referendum on capitalism versus socialism, they will hand Trump an easy victory. The growing interest in mounting a late-stage presidential bid shows they are aware of this — and they are panicking.
