Bloomberg is spending hundreds of millions on 2020. He says he should pay more taxes, too

He’s worth more than $60 billion, has spent over $250 million in 10 weeks for political ads and is unapologetically flooding the California airwaves.

Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is ready to part with some of his fortune in the form of higher taxes, too.

The 2020 Democratic presidential candidate on a visit to Sacramento on Monday said he’d support raising his own personal taxes from the present levels of 37 percent to 44.6 percent.

Taxes and income inequality are key issues in the 2020 Democratic presidential campaign, which kicked into high gear this week with the Iowa caucuses. California’s March 3 primary is approaching and early voting is already underway.

Bloomberg is proposing a larger tax increase on high earners than former Vice President Joe Biden, who wants a top rate of 39.6 percent. That was the top rate before President Donald Trump signed a 2017 tax cut that has disproportionately benefited wealthier individuals.

Bloomberg also said he’d reject the ambitious changes Elizabeth Warren has proposed to place an annual 2 percent tax on households worth more than $50 million and a 6 percent tax on those worth more than $1 billion.

Bloomberg insisted it “just does not work.”

“You want to have a progressive tax rate so that the more you make, the greater the percentage is,” Bloomberg told The Bee after a Monday morning visit to Sacramento. “You have to do it in a way that doesn’t dissuade people from working harder and doesn’t create such a high rate that everybody focuses on gimmicks to avoid it. The last time we had a very high tax rate, nobody paid it. It was ridiculous. It was a joke. Today, it’s not a joke and we shouldn’t let it become a joke.”

Bloomberg is leaning in on an electability argument, saying he has the pragmatic views and financial resources to beat Trump in a potential general election matchup. Despite not having policies outlined on higher education, immigration and foreign policy, Bloomberg is banking on the most delegate-rich state in the nation to come through for him over the next month.

Bloomberg has adopted an unusual strategy since he launched his campaign in November. He’s skipping the four earliest voting states, won’t accept outside donations and is buying expensive television spots hand over fist.

His wealth has become a subject of concern within some progressive circles, with criticisms coming at him from fellow 2020 Democrats Bernie Sanders, Tom Steyer and Warren.

“I’m spending my money to try to get rid of Donald Trump,” Bloomberg said. “And when I say that, they say, ‘Oh, spend more.’ I’m not doing anything different than other people are doing. They have been working on it for a few years. I’ve only been working on it for 10 weeks. The only ways I can get a message out is to spend money.”

When the Democratic National Committee announced last week it would overhaul the requirement that candidates meet a certain donor threshold to make it onto the Feb. 19 debate in Nevada, Steyer grew particularly frustrated. He was upset the party hadn’t changed its process to allow more diverse candidates onto earlier debates and had just paved a pathway for Bloomberg.

“Let’s make one thing clear: changing the rules now to accommodate Mike Bloomberg and not changing them in the past to ensure a more diverse debate stage is just plain wrong,” Steyer said in a statement.

Bloomberg took aim at Steyer, saying the fellow billionaire “has a right to his opinions, but they’re not in sync with what the Democratic Party seems to want to do.”

“I didn’t make the rules for the Democratic Party,” Bloomberg said. “I didn’t talk to them about it. They decided to do it. What it means now is the people that can get in the debates are the people that the public has selected as potentially serious candidates, and that’s why I’m gonna get in it because the polls will show that I’m a serious candidate and the Democratic Party, I guess, decided they wanted all serious candidates up on the stage at once.”

This story was originally published February 3, 2020 at 4:55 PM.