New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg on Sunday criticized the push to end Bush-era tax cuts on the wealthy, saying that the effort – led mainly by Democrats – does little to actually affect the deficit and amounts to pandering to populist sentiment.
"If you just would let expire the Bush era tax cuts on the very wealthy, it does almost nothing to balance the budget. It is just a punitive thing to whip up populist sentiment, and get a few votes, and say that's good,” he said on CNN’s Fareed Zakaria GPS.
Bloomberg is himself a wealthy man, with $22 billion in net worth, according to Forbes. He suggested that Obama come out in support of letting all the Bush-era tax cuts expire, not just those for the wealthy.
Bloomberg also addressed reports that he has been privately critical of President Obama, saying that he thinks Obama has “been a much better president than people give him credit for.” But he had praise for Mitt Romney, too, whom he said, “did a good job as governor of Massachusetts."
“I like a lot of things he did up there. He actually put in a health care plan that worked,” Bloomberg said.
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