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The Politics Of Partisanship And The Resulting Inaction And Excuses Have Paralyzed Decision-making, Primarily At The Federal Level, And The Big Issues Of The Day Are Not Being Addressed, Leaving Our Future In Jeopardy.

-Michael Bloomberg

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The Politics Of Partisanship

Michael Bloomberg

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The Politics Of Partisanship And The Resulting Inaction And Excuses Have Paralyzed Decision-making, Primarily At The Federal Level, And The Big Issues Of The Day Are Not Being Addressed, Leaving Our Future In Jeopardy.

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If You Really Believe That You're Making A Difference And That You Can Leave A Legacy Of Better Schools And Jobs And Safer Streets, Why Would You Not Spend The Money? The Objective Is To Improve The Schools, Bring Down Crime, Build Affordable Housing, Clean The Streets - Not To Have A Fair Fight.

Other Ways Of Looking At The Environmental Or Climate Change Stuff Is To Frame It In The Context That It Is Simultaneously A Public Health Issue. One Out Of Eight Premature Deaths Worldwide Happens Because Of Air Pollution. The Worst Power Plant In America Kills 278 People A Year And Causes 445 Heart Attacks. So, When We Improve Air Quality We Improve Our Lives, And At The Same Time We Improve The Climate As Well. We Must See Climate Policy From This Perspective And Not As An Abstract Threat That May Threaten Our Survival In 100 Years.

By Speeding The Transition To Cleaner Energy, We Can Improve The Lives Of Billions Of People, While Also Reducing The Risks We Face From A Changing Climate.

I Tend To Be Reasonably Blunt, Maybe A Little Bit Too Much. But I Just- I Always Respected People That Tell The Truth. And I've Always Wanted People To Tell Me The Truth.

Telling The Truth

Well, We Have To Provide The World's Best Schools. We Certainly Don't Have Them, But That's Our Objective.

It's No Fun To Protest On An Empty Stomach.

America Was Built By Immigrants. Almost Nobody That I Know Is Any More Than Three Generations, Maybe Four Generations, American.

And I Keep Saying, Whether You Like The President Or Not, Everybody Has To Pull Together And Help The President Because, As The President Goes, So Goes The Country, As The Country Goes, So Goes Your Job, Your Ability To Feed Your Family, Your Government.

[donald] Trump I've Known Because We Cut Ribbons Together At Golf Courses And That Sort Of Thing. He's A Pleasant Guy When You're With Him. I've Played Golf With Him Twice, Oh, Probably 10, 15 Years Ago.

Go Walk The Streets Of Beijing. It's Pretty Hard To Argue It Isn't A Modern City. Now, If You Go Outside [of Beijing], In The Rural Areas, That's True. But Rural America, You Can Say The Same Thing, In Appalachia There's An Awful Lot Of Poverty And Lack Of Education.

The Problem Of Dealing With The Financial Industry Is Being Addressed Today. You Can Measure It With Interest Rates Coming Down. You Can Measure It With The Quantity Of Loans, And That Sort Of Thing. The Problem Is, That Nobody Wants To Take The Loans. Once The Banks Are Willing To Give It, That's Only Half The Problem.

Central Planning Didn't Work For Stalin Or Mao, And It Won't Work For An Entrepreneur Either.

What Has Changed Is That People Have Stopped Working Together.

Working Together

I Think It's A Sign That The Establishment Is Going To Have To Change. For Too Long They Never Thought About The Average Person, Because The Average Person Is Not Organized.

In Business, When You Fail At Something, When Something Doesn't Work, You Say Okay, We've Learned That That's Not A Path To Go Down.

I Thought Jeb Bush Would Have Made A Good President. He Was On The Board Of My Foundation. He's Very Conservative, Much Too Conservative For Me.

I Know A Con When I See One.

I Have Two Daughters That Are The Loves Of My Life And I Want To Leave Them A Better World, A Better Country, A Better State And A Better City.

After All, The Same Steps That Reduce Carbon Pollution Also Clean The Air We Breathe, Which Saves Lives And Reduces Disease.

I Think [winston] Churchill Said It Was " [democracy] The Worst Of All Systems Except For All The Others." And That's Probably True. It's Never Gone Easily.

America Is Built Around This Premise That You Can Do It, And There Are An Awful Lot Of People Who Are Unlikely To Have Done It Who Did.

When You Go To Washington Now, You Can Feel A Sense Of Fear In The Air - The Fear To Do Anything, Or Say Anything, That Might Affect The Polls, Or Give The Other Side An Advantage, Or Offend A Special Interest.

I'd Love To Have A President Who Really Was Out There Leading And Traveling Around The World Campaigning For Joint Climate Change Action. Even The Chinese Government Is Trying To Get People To Stop Polluting. And I Think The Federal Government Level In China Is Acting More Responsibly Than The American Government.

And I Think The More Money You Put In People's Hands, The More They Will Spend. And If They Don't Spend It, They Invest It. And Investing It Is Another Way Of Creating Jobs. It Puts Money Into Mutual Funds Or Other Kinds Of Banks That Can Go Out And Make Loans, And We Need To Do That.

I Cannot For The Life Of Me Understand Why The American Market Keeps Going Up. Our Economy Has Some Real Challenges. The Infrastructure's Falling Apart. We're Destroying Jobs With Technology. We Are Keeping The Best And The Brightest From Around The World From Coming To America To Create New Jobs And Create New Businesses. All Of Those Things Would Give You Pause To Worry About The Future.

When I Came Into Office, People Said, 'billionaire? How Do They Live? What Do They Eat? How Do They Sleep?' Today, They See Me On The Subway Coming Uptown. A Couple Of People Say Hi, Some People Smile And Nod. Some People Just Sleep. It's Not An Issue.

The Public Is Mad, Frustrated, But What The Public Wants Is Progress.

Most Gun Dealers Follow The Law And Run Honest Businesses. But The Statistics Show That 1 Percent Of Dealers Sell More Than Half Of All Illegal Guns. Why Isn't The Federal Government Going After Them? Here's One Reason: Unlike Mayors, Members Of Congress Don't Get A Phone Call In The Middle Of The Night When A Cop Is Shot And Killed. They Don't Deliver The Eulogies.

I Gave A Speech At The Democratic National Convention In 2016 And Warned Of Trump. America Has Survived For Almost 250 Years With Its Imperfect Democracy, But, You Know, Maybe It's A Better Democracy Than Elsewhere. And I Am Sure American Democracy Will Survive.

I'm Worried About The World Because Of Nuclear Proliferation.

The Next Day After I Got Fired, Literally The Next Day, I Started A New Company.

Leading From The Front: It's What Built America. But These Days, The Federal Government Isn't At The Front - It's Cowering In The Back Corner Of The Room, Ducking Responsibility And Hoping No One Notices.

To A Contrarian Like Me, Constant Advice Not To Do Something Almost Always Starts Me Quickly Down The Risky, Unpopular Path.

Every One Of My Positions Cuts - Out Half The Country. I'm Pro-choice, I'm Pro-gay Rights, I'm Pro-immigration, I'm Against Guns, I Believe In Darwin.

If You Have One Farm Worker, Typically They Create Three Jobs With Higher Compensation And Higher Skills - The People That Pack, The People That Ship, The People That Inspect, The People That Sell, That Sort Of Thing.

The Public Wants Elected Officials Who Have Character. The Public Wants Elected Officials Who Are Willing To Stand Up And Say Things, Even If They Don't Agree With Them.

The Politics Of Partisanship And The Resulting Inaction And Excuses Have Paralyzed Decision-making, Primarily At The Federal Level, And The Big Issues Of The Day Are Not Being Addressed, Leaving Our Future In Jeopardy.

After Hard Work, The Biggest Determinant Is Being In The Right Place At The Right Time.

What The Democrats Have To Understand Is That While We Do Need To Reform Our Regulation And We Do Need More Restrictions, It Is True That It Is Capitalism And Free Enterprise And Companies That Create Jobs And Wealth For Every American.

For Sure I Would Prefer Trump Had Not Withdrawn From The Paris Agreement. But The Fight Against Climate Change Is Really Done At The Local Level - Whether It's Cities, Local Governments Or The Private Sector, Corporate And Individual. No Matter What Trump Says, Nobody Is Going To Go Back And Take The Scrubber Out Or Change Back To Polluting. The Damage That Trump Can Do Is If There Are Countries That Are On The Fence About Whether They Want To Address The Issue, This Gives The Naysayers, The Doubters, Those That Don't Want To Do Anything, A Little More Ammunition.

Nobody Is Going To Delegate A Lot Of Power To A Secretary That They Can't Control.

Being An Entrepreneur Isn't Really About Starting A Business. It's A Way Of Looking At The World: Seeing Opportunity Where Others See Obstacles, Taking Risks When Others Take Refuge.

I Think One Of The Great Dangers Here Is Going And Categorizing Anybody From One Religion As A Terrorist. That's Not True... That Would Let The Terrorists Win. That's What They Want Us To Do.

We Need Our President To Be Successful Because Our Futures Are All Tied To The Success Of America, Which Means America's Government, Which Means, In Essence, The President.

Throughout Our History Each And Every Generation Has Expanded Upon The Freedoms Won By Their Parents And Grandparents. Each And Every Generation Has Removed Some Of The Barriers To Full Participation In The American Dream. And The Next Great Barrier Standing Before Our Generation Is The Prohibition On Marriage For Same-sex Couples

The One Thing Computers Have Done Is Let Us Make Bigger Mistakes. We Have To Be Careful Not To Depend On Our Machines.

The Russian Economy Is Way Down Because Of The Price Of Oil, And Because The Ussr Was A Big Chunk Of It.

Russian Economy

People Use So Much More Health Care When They Live Longer.

We Can Be Certain That Cities Around The World Will Compete For The Jobs That The Next Revival Of The Financial Services Industry Will Bring.

People Have No Confidence That Washington, Both Sides Of Aisle, Are Coming Together To Try And Do What's Right For The Economy.

The People Who Are Worried About Privacy Have A Legitimate Worry. But We Live In A Complex World Where You're Going To Have To Have A Level Of Security Greater Than You Did Back In The Olden Days, If You Will. And Our Laws And Our Interpretation Of The Constitution, I Think, Have To Change.

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My Father, A Bookkeeper Who Never Earned More Than $11,000 A Year In His Life, Sat There, Writing Out A $25 Check To The Naacp. When I Asked Him Why, He Said Discrimination Against Anyone Is Discrimination Against Us All. And I Never Forgot That. Indeed, His Philanthropy Was A Gift, Not Just To That Organization, But To Me.

Donald Trump Says He Wants To Run America Like He's Running His Business? God Help Us.

You Have To Understand, We Have Better Communications And Better Transportation, So People Know What's Available Elsewhere And Can Get A Message Out, And You Can Move Things. And You [can] Say That The Economy Is More Unpredictable.

What Goes On In Europe Concerns Us Greatly Because, If Europe Comes Apart, The E.u. Comes Apart, Then You're Going To Have Enormous Impact On America, That's A Very Big Trading Partner Of Ours, And People Own Securities Around The World In This Day And Age.

I Think Both Of Them [donald Trump And Bernie Sanders] Have [chances] Because They Are Not The Establishment, Not For Who They Are.

In New York City, A Lot Of People Think "the Great Outdoors" Is The Area Between Your Front Door And A Taxi Cab.

If I Remember, Russia, 20 Or 30 Years Ago, You'd Get Shot Trying To Leave. Today, Russian Tourists Are All Over The World. You Have Russian Oligarchs With Big Yachts All Over The World.

Life Is Too Short To Spend Your Time Avoiding Failure.

Life Is Too Short

Surround Yourself With Good People

Surround Yourself With Positive People

Stubborn Isn't A Word I Would Use To Describe Myself; Pigheaded Is More Appropriate.

I've Always Wondered If People Who Block Each Other From Expressing Their Opinions Do So Because They Have So Little Confidence In Their Own. To Me, Encountering An Opposing Point Of View Is A Chance To Gain A Deeper Understanding Of The Issues At Stake And Develop My Own Point Of View. But The First Thing You've Got To Do Is You've Got To Let People Speak And You've Got To Listen. And That's What The First Amendment Is All About. That's What Really Distinguishes This Country From Others.

Fifty Percent Of The World's Population Lives In Cities. In A Couple Of Decades, 70 Percent Of The World's Population Will Be Living In Cities. Cities Are Where The Problem Is. Cities Are Where The Solution Is, Where Creativity Exists To Address The Challenges And Where They Have Most Impact. This Is Why, In 2005, The C40 Was Founded, An Organization Of Cities That Address Climate Change. It Started With 18 Cities; Now It's 91. Cities Simply Are The Key To Saving The Planet.

What I'm Trying To Do Is To Create Excitement. So People Looking At The Bloomberg's Office Building Say, "my Goodness, What's Going On Here? There's Something Different About This Company." You Want The Employees To Get Psyched. And It's A Chance To Meet Each Other. My Job Is To Get People To Work Together. With Free Food And No Offices, Even For Bloomberg, This Might Be Considered One Of The World's Great Corporate Headquarters.

Working Together

If Warren Buffett Made His Money From Ordinary Income Rather Than Capital Gains, His Tax Rate Would Be A Lot Higher Than His Secretary's. In Fact A Very Small Percentage Of People In This Country Pay A Big Chunk Of The Taxes.

You Can Bet - A Good Chance Of Hillary [clinton], A Good Chance Of [donald] Trump - But Not 100% In Either Case.

If You Look At Who Starts New Businesses, People That Are Innovative And Risk Takers. When You Look At Immigrants, You Really Have To Be An Innovator And A Risk Taker To Leave Everything You Know In The Old Country And Go To A New Country. People That Come Here In America Come Here To Work.

Jeb Bush Is Very Good On Immigration, He's Very Good On Education. He's A Smart Guy.

You Are Safer Here Tonight Than You Would Be On The Streets Of Any Other City In The World.

We Will Go Forward... We Will Never Go Back.

I Think If You Look At People, Whether In Business Or Government, Who Haven't Had Any Moral Compass, Who've Just Changed To Say Whatever They Thought The Popular Thing Was, In The End They're Losers.

Five Years Have Come, And Five Years Have Gone, And Still We Stand Together As One. We Come Back To This Place To Remember The Heartbreaking Anniversary - And Each Person Who Died Here - Those Known And Unknown To Us, Whose Absence Is Always With Us.

I Will Say That Walking Down The Street, Getting On The Subway, Taking The Elevator, If There's One Or Two People And They Say, 'great Job, Mayor,' That Is A Real Turn-on. I Mean, Anybody That Wouldn't Find That Satisfying, Rewarding, Exciting, Thrilling - I Think They Should See The Doctor.

When I Care About Something, I Care About Something. I Think I Have An Obligation As An American To - And As A Citizen, As - As A Human Being, To Help Others. Smoking Is Going To Kill A Billion People This Century. I've Put Six Hundred Million Dollars From My Own Money Into Trying To Stop The Tobacco Companies From Getting Kids To Smoke And Convincing Adults That It's Not In Their Health.

You Know, Russia Today Is, What, 200 Million People? In Land Mass, It's Probably 50 Times The Size [of Japan], In Natural Resources A Hundred Times The Size! Russia's Not Doing All That Badly. The Public There - Not Everybody - But They Have Things That The West Offered, [that] Were Only Available In The West A Long Time Ago.

Don't Be Afraid To Assert Yourself, Have Confidence In Your Abilities And Don't Let The Bastards Get You Down.

I'd Be Derelict In My Duty If I Didn't Go And Continue To Use Every Advantage That I Can To Promote New York's Cause.

There Is No Business In America That Would Be Prevented From Taking Results Into Account When Making Personnel Decisions.

I Never Lie, So If Somebody Asked Me A Question, I Told Them.

The Cold Harsh Reality Is That We Have To Balance The Budget.

We Cannot Continue. Our Pension Costs And Health Care Costs For Our Employees Are Going To Bankrupt This City.

This Is The City Of Dreamers And Time And Again It's The Place Where The Greatest Dream Of All, The American Dream, Has Been Tested And Has Triumphed.

Native American

Government By Three Men In A Room Has Turned New York State Into A National Symbol Of Governmental Dysfunction. Enough Is Enough!

Cities With Clean Air Gain An Economic Advantage, Because Where People Want To Live And Work, Businesses Want To Invest.

Our Climate Is Changing. And While The Increase In Extreme Weather We Have Experienced In New York City And Around The World May Or May Not Be The Result Of It, The Risk That It May Be - Given The Devastation It Is Wreaking - Should Be Enough To Compel All Elected Leaders To Take Immediate Action.

Government Should Not Tell You What To Do Unless There's A Compelling Public Purpose.

I Like The Theater, Dining And Chasing Women. Let Me Put It This Way: I Am A Single, Straight Billionaire In Manhattan. It's Like A Wet Dream.

These Endless Legal Challenges That Define Elections In New York Are A Joke In This Country, And They Are The Reason Why It Is So Expensive, Or One Of The Reasons, It's So Expensive To Run Here And Why So Many People Decide Not To Run.

I Think Fully, That An Independent Candidate Can't Win In This Country. The Constitution Is Structured For Basically A Two-party Government, A Two-party Race.

We Need To Have More Taxes, Not Less, And We Need The Taxes We Have, Certainly, To Provide Services - For Defense And Education And Health Care. We Should Not Cut Money Here In Order To Cut Taxes.

There Is No Accountability Today... No Willingness To Focus On Big Ideas.

I've Always Respected Those Who Tried To Change The World For The Better, Rather Than Just Complain About It.

Nobody's Going To Elect Me President Of The United States.

Taxes Are Not Good Things, But If You Want Services, Somebody's Got To Pay For Them So They're A Necessary Evil.

We're America, And We Have To Stop Worrying About What Happens Overseas, And To Be Optimistic, Even Though Nobody Should Think We're Not Going To Have Some Difficult Times.

Nobody Should Ever Mistake And Think That Our Country [usa] Is Weakened, Or That Authority Is Diffuse And Unspecified, And That We Are Vulnerable.

If Someone Tells Me They Skied All Day And Never Fell Down, I Tell Them To Find Another Mountain.

The Press Really Is Not Doing Its Job Of Holding Their [the Candidates'] Feet To The Fire. ... The Tough Questions Are Not What Are You In Favor Of, But How Are You Going To Get It Through Congress?

Tough Questions

The World Trade Center Site Will Forever Hold A Special Place In Our City, In Our Hearts. But We Would Be Untrue To The Best Part Of Ourselves And Who We Are As New Yorkers And Americans If We Said No To A Mosque In Lower Manhattan.

If You Want To Do Something For Your Children And Show How Much You Love Them, The Single Best Thing-by Far-is To Support Organizations That Will Create A Better World For Them And Their Children.

China Is Investing In Factories In Eastern Europe, Not Because Their Labor Costs Are Lower, But Because They Want To Be Closer To Their Markets.

In Our Democracy, Near Equality Is No Equality. Government Either Treats Everyone The Same, Or It Doesn't. And Right Now It Doesn't.

If You Don't Encounter Setbacks In Your Career, If You Don't Have Doubts And Disappointments , Let Me Tell You, You're Not Dreaming Big Enough.

I Don't Believe That Government Is Good At Picking Technology, Particularly Technology That Is Changing. By The Time You Get It Done And Go Through Democracy, It's So Outdated.

Don't Think That I'm - I'd- I'm Infallible. Will Always Make Mistakes.

Making Mistakes

There Are Lots Of Threats To You In The World. There's The Threat Of A Heart Attack For Genetic Reasons. You Can't Sit There And Worry About Everything. Get A Life.

We Are The Safest Large City In America, But Any Crime Rate Is Too High.

Government Is Dysfunctional.

Many Of America's And New York's Sons And Daughters Are Around The World Fighting For The Freedoms That The Statue Of Liberty Stands For.

You're Going To See A Million People Here Who Have The Courage To Come And Not Let Terrorists Win, And That's Exactly What We Should All Do.

There Will Be Ups, There Will Be Downs, There Will Be Sideways. I Can Just Tell You I Have Been Hired, I Have Been Fired, I Have Been Lauded, I Have Been Vilified. I've Said Some Of The Most Brilliant Things That Just By Accident Appeared On My Tongue, And I've Said Some Of The Dumbest Things That You Could Imagine. But Each Day - Even The Day That I Knew I Was Going To Be Fired - I Looked Forward To Because I've Always Believed That Tomorrow Was Going To Be The Best Day Of My Life.

When You Come In To Court As A Plaintiff Or As A Defendant, It Is Terribly Important That You Look Up At The Bench And Feel That That Person Represents You And Will Understand You, That That Person Is Reflective Of Our Community And Of Our Society.

Basically, The Ubr Is A Relic Of An Earlier Vision For Uddi. The Original Vision For Uddi Was As A Standard That Would Help Companies Conduct Business With Each Other In An Automated Fashion. The Idea Was That Companies Could Publish How They Wanted To Interact, And Other Companies Could Find That Information And Use It To Establish A Relationship.

You Can't Define What's Middle Class, What Is Wealthy, What Is Poor.

Design Does Matter. And Not Necessarily In A Way That People Realize. A Lot Of What You Do, People Take For Granted - That A Park Has Always Been Here, That A Bicycle Lane Has Always Been There, That The Street Is Safe Or Clean.

Entrepreneurship Is Having An Idea To Do Something Great And Not Entirely Have A Plan On How To Do It But The Drive And Will Power To Make It Work

Entrepreneurship

You Have To Take Away Some Of Tax Breaks For The Wealthy, And You Have To Cut Back On Some Entitlements. Because, Unless We Do All Of These Things, It Just Doesn't Work. And What's Good Theater And What's Good Politics Isn't Necessarily Good Economic Policy.

You Bet I Did And I Enjoyed It.

My Personal View Is, Why Don't You Get Out There And Try To Do Something About The Things That You Don't Like, Create The Jobs That We Are Lacking, Rather Than Just Yell And Scream. But If You Want To Yell And Scream, We'll Make Sure You Can Do It.

When It Comes To Public School Education, We Have Been Unwilling To Measure Our Results. We've Been Unwilling To Pay Based On Performance. We Have Tenure Where, Even If You Can't Teach, You Can't Get Fired. We've Been Unwilling To Invest In New Schools.

If You Think Of All The Publicity About The Terrible Tragedy Of Virginia Tech, We Have A Virginia Tech In This Country Every Day. It's Just Spread Across 50 States.

What You've Got To Do Is Be Honest. Say What You Believe. Give It To Them Straight. Just Don't Wuss Out.

Fighting Climate Change Isn't Just An Obligation We Owe To Future Generations. It's Also An Opportunity To Improve Public Health - And Drive Economic Growth - In The Here And Now.

I Believe In Judaism, I Was Raised A Jew, I'm Happy To Be One - Or Proud To Be One.

I Know How To Make Decisions And Stand Up To The Criticism Every Day.

In The Game Of Life, When The Final Buzzer Sounds, The Only Stat You Carry With You Is The Number Of Assists You Made.

I'm Not Going To Talk About Supporting Somebody For A Long Time. I Don't Know Who The Two Party Candidates Are Going To Be.

People Vote Against Their Own Interests That All The Time. But When You Do The Polling In The U.s., It Has Gone From Less Than 50 Percent Who Thought Climate Change Was Real To 70-odd Percent. And If You Listen To The Republicans In Congress, They Used To Say, "oh, Climate Change Doesn't Exist." Then They Switched To "well, It Exists, But It's Not Man-made," To "well, I'm Going To Address The Issue." Why? Because When They Go Home, The Local Constituent Says, "wait A Second. What Are You Talking About? We Just Had A Flood. We Haven't Had Rain In A Long Time." They Can't Get Away From It.

I Never Liked Anyone Who Didn't Have A Temper. If You Don't Have A Temper, You Don't Have Any Passion.

Ironically, It Is Exactly Because We Are A City That Embraces Freedom, That Welcomes Everyone And Encourages Their Dreams, That New York Remains On The Front Lines In The War On Terror.

In Science, A Path That Turns Out To Be A Dead End Is Very Useful Because You Don't Devote Resources To Focusing On That; You Go Elsewheres.

You Must First Be Willing To Fail — And You Must Have The Courage To Go For It Anyway.

I've Got The Greatest Job In The World. There's No Other Job In Government Where Cause And Effect Is So Tightly Coupled Where You Can Make A Difference Every Day In So Many Different Ways And In So Many Different People's Lives. It's A Great Challenge.

Mayors Are Very Different, Because Mayors Can't Be On Both Sides Of Every Issue. Mayors Have To Take An Explicit Stance. Just Go With Your Gut And Say What You Believe, And You'll Be Fine. If You're Not Fine, At Least You'll Like What You See In The Mirror.

We Have An Expression In New York City Government - "in God We Trust, But For Everyone Else, Bring Data." It's So Easy To Pick Up A Sound Byte And Say, "oh, Yeah, Yeah, I Believe That," Without Really Thinking.

We've Continued Progress In The Six Months Since Trump Got Elected, And The Good Thing About What We're Doing Is That Success Begets Success. As We Bring Down Greenhouse Gases, For Example, We've Closed Half Of The Coal-fired Power Plants In The Country In Recent Years. There's More Impetus To Try To Close The Other Half Because You Can See That It Is Working. So, You Know, I Had Hoped That Trump Would Not Do That, And It Doesn't Make Any Sense To Me, But Regardless, It Is Not As Cataclysmic As It Could Be.

I'm Worried About The World Because There's Chaos In The Middle East, And I Think The Iranian Deal [to Lift Sanctions] Is Going To Continue The Shia-sunni Battles, The Persian-arab Battles.

No Place Epitomizes The American Experience And The American Spirit More Than New York City.

Progress Is Not Inevitable. It's Up To Us To Create It.

The Fact Is, The Most Painful And Tragic Lesson Of The 20th Century Was That Regimes Based On Racial Superiority And Religious Hatred Can't Be Trusted To Keep Their Word To The International Community.

Partisanship May Be King In Washington - But The Rest Of Us Don't Have To Pay Tribute.

I Know That Many Irish-born New Yorkers Are Caught In The Trap Of Our Federal Immigration Policies. If We Are Going To Continue To Attract The Best And The Brightest - And Ireland Has More Than Its Fair Share - We Need To Inject Some Common Sense Into Our Immigration Laws, And I'm Doing My Best To Make That Case In Washington.

Like Israel, New York City's History Has Been Defined By Immigrants Who Come In Search Of Freedom And The Opportunity To Build A Better Life. And Like Israel, New York City Has Remained A Target For Terrorists Who Seek To Destroy That Freedom

Look At All Of The Great Strengths Of America: Entrepreneurialship, Work Ethic, Natural Resources, A Democracy, A Transparency, A Willingness To Be Critical. Around The World, They Look At Us, And They Say, "why Are You Criticizing Yourself? Why Are You People Arguing During The Political Process To Elect A President Or Somebody Else?" That's The Great Strength Of This Country.

You Don't Make Spending Decisions, Investment Decisions, Hiring Decisions, Or Whether-you're-going-to-look-for-a-job Decisions When You Don't Know What's Going To Happen.

We All Must Recognize That Homeland Security Funds Should Be Allocated By Threat And No Other Reason.

We Have To Get Control Of Our Borders. You Can Only Do That If You Make Companies Obey The Law And Not Hire Undocumented Or Illegals. They Can Only Do That Is If They Have A Social Security Card That Has Biometrics So They Know Whether The Person Is Legal Or Not.

I Have My Own Army In The Nypd, Which Is The Seventh Biggest Army In The World. I Have My Own State Department, Much To Foggy Bottom's Annoyance. We Have The United Nations In New York, And So We Have An Entree Into The Diplomatic World That Washington Does Not Have.

We've Shown The World That New York Can Never Be Defeated, Because Of Its Dynamic And Diverse Population And Because It Embodies The Spirit Of Enterprise And The Love Of Liberty. And Because No Matter Who You Are, If You Believe In Yourself And Your Dream, New York Will Always Be The Place For You.

We Have Reduced Poverty In The World By 50% Since The Year 1970 - The Number Of People Who Go To Bed Hungry, The Number Of People That Have To Sleep Without A Roof Over Their Heads, The Number Of People That Are Illiterate.the World Is Better.

[ Bernie Sanders' Popularity] Is Exactly The Same As Donald Trump's.it Is A Bunch Of People Who Are Disaffected With What The Establishment Has Done, And They Are Striking Out. Do They Have Any Clear Idea Of What They Want As An Alternative? No. The Candidates That They Have Surrounded Themselves With Either Have No Idea Or Are Promising Things That Are So Impractical They Will Never Get Done.

Keep In Mind, Mike Bloomberg's Kids And Grandkids Are Breathing That Air Just Like The Coalminers' Families Are Breathing That Air. And The Coalminers Are The Ones That Have The Conflict. They Want Their Jobs, I Understand That. They Need To Be Able To Feed Their Families. They Also Have To Worry About Their Health And The Health Of Their Families.

The Truth Of The Matter Is: You Can Create A Great Legacy, And Inspire Others, By Giving It To Philanthropic Organizations.

[hillary Clinton] Is Going To Decide War, Peace, And Health, Education, Livelihood For My Kids. I Want The Best Person.

Health Education

I Do Not Think That Anybody Should Get Paid For Lousy Performance. I've Said That For A Long Time. If You Work Hard And You Do Good, You Get Paid Well.

Last I Looked - And I'm Not A Candidate - But Last Time I Checked Reading About The Constitution, The Electoral College Has Nothing To Do With Parties, Has Absolutely Nothing To Do With Parties. It's Most States Are Winners Take All.

Someone Once Described The Information Business As Exactly The Opposite Of Sex. When It's Good, It's Still Lousy.

The System [in U.s.] Is Designed For A Two-party System. And Those Two Parties Have An Interest In Keeping Third Parties Out. There's Too Much Of The Structure That Works In The Two-party Way. They Will Keep The Third Party Out.

And If I Were The President, I'd Go Out There And I'd Emphasize The Things I Have Done, And I'd Say, 'some Things Haven't Worked, And I'm Sorry About That, But I Keep Trying.' And I'm - And I Think The President Is A Very Viable Candidate, And You're Going To Have A Real Horse Race Here No Matter Who The Republican Nominee Is.

Neither Party Has God On Its Side, A Monopoly On Good Ideas, Or A Lock On Any Single Fiscal, Social, Or Moral Philosophy.

The Governor Of Texas Was A Real Climate Change, Well, "skeptic" Would Be A Nice Way Of Phrasing It. Still, Though, Texas Is A Leader In Renewables. So, What I Care About Is What Politicians Are Actually Doing, Not What They Are Saying.

The Estate Taxes, On Balance, Are Good. They Get People To Give Money To Charity, And They Prevent These Family Dynasties Which Keep Other People From Having Opportunities. It May Be Good For A Family, But For Society It's Probably Not Good. And I've Always Been In Favor Of Having An Estate Tax.

We Should Remember It Wasn't So Long Ago That Confidence In New York Was In Short Supply.

I Think That ... None Of [the Candidates In He Third Party] Have The Courage To Do What's Right For The Country. And I Have, Now, Two Grandchildren, Which I Didn't Have Before. I'd Like To Leave Them A Better World.

Millions Of Americans Have Contributed To Building A Stronger Israel; I've Been Proud To Be One Of Them. Last Year, I Went To Jerusalem To Help Dedicate In My Father's Name A New Mda Medical Facility Which Treats People Of All Faiths And All Nationalities Absolutely Equally.

New York Has Been, And Will Continue To Be, A Magnet For People From All Over The World. This Is Where The Arts, Business, Research And Technology Converge To Create The World's Foremost Urban Economy.

I Was The One Of Those Students Who Made The Top Half Of The Class Possible.

Others May Doubt Us. They May Criticize Us. They May Try To Deny Us What Is Rightfully Ours. But They Will Fail. And I Promise You, As Long As I Am Mayor, I Will Never Back Away From Fighting Any Opponent - Or Confronting Any Obstacle - That Would Prevent Our People From Achieving All Of Their Dreams In Our New York.

The Cia Will Only Hire People With Impeccable Credentials To Be A Translator. 'impeccable Credentials' Means You've Never Lived Outside The United States.

Unemployment In America Today Is Too High. And Part Of The Reason, Unfortunately, Is That Many Companies Cannot Fill The High-skilled Jobs Increasingly At Risk Of Going Overseas.

Now, You Might Say – “but Why Should We Pay People For Doing What They’re Supposed To Do?” It’s A Fair Question – But Think Of It This Way: Every Other Anti-poverty Program That’s Been Tried Has Failed To Get The National Poverty Rate Below 11 Percent... Why Shouldn’t We Experiment With A Program Built Around The One Strategy That Has Proven Time And Again To Work Wonders – Capitalism?

What Chance Does A Five-foot-seven Billionaire Jew Who's Divorced Really Have Of Becoming President?

You Can't Sit There And Worry About Everything.

I'm Trying To Change The Culture In New York City; That's Hard Enough!

Canada Sets Aside 36 Percent Of Their Visas For People With Skills They Think Their Country Needs. We Set Aside Six Percent. We Educate The Doctors, And Then Don't Give 'em A Green Card.

We're Paying More For The Privilege Of Getting Sick And Dying Early. Once Again, It Makes No Sense. And Once Again, No One In Washington Is Talking About How To Fix It.

I Am Heading Straight In. I Have Earned My Place In Heaven. It’s Not Even Close.

If You Want To Know How To Solve Society's Problems, You Start Out With Better Public Education.

Public Education

We Need To Inject Some Old-fashioned American Values And Common-sense, Practical Thinking Into Our Energy Policy.

If You Can't Prove It's Not True Then A Certain Number Of People Will Glom On And Say It Is True.

I Think That Most Of The Candidates [for Presidency] Can't Run The Railroad, And I Still Worry That Whoever Gets Elected Will Have Policies Designed For Political Rather Than Practical Reasons.

Any Friend Of Fossil Is A Friend Of Mine... We’ve Got To Do Everything We Can To Get People Out Of Their Automobiles And Into Mass Transit.

You Can't Depend On Polls.

Yes, They Broke The Law, But We Can't Deport Them. Let's Get Over This Pointing Fingers And Do Something About That, Whether It - They Have To Pay A Fine, Learn To Speak English, The History, You Can Do That. And Then You Have To Give Visas For The Skills We Need.

The Main Claim To Fame, I Think, Of Bernie Sanders - Who I've Never Met; I'm Sure He's A Pleasant Guy - [is That] He's Certainly Not Stupid.

This Society Cannot Go Forward, The Way We Have Been Going Forward, Where The Gap Between The Rich And The Poor Keeps Growing. It's Not Politically Viable; It's Not Morally Right; It's Just Not Going To Happen.

Organizing Around A Common Interest Is A Fundamental Part Of Democracy. We Should No More Try To Take Away The Right Of Individuals To Collectively Bargain Than We Should Try To Take Away The Right To A Secret Ballot.

You Can Buy Almost Anything Anyplace In The World. You Can Get It Delivered In 24 Hours. You Can Pay For It On Credit Or Just By Swiping Something. So, I Don't Know That The World Is Worse Off, In That Context, Than Before.

If It Wasn't For O'flanagan's Pub On Manhattan's Upper East Side, I Don't Know Where I Would Have Spent My Friday Nights As A Young Man.

I Was A Democrat Before I Was A Republican Before I Became An Independent And I Never Changed My Principles.

Funny Graduation

I Don't Know Why You Should Be Proud Of Something. It Doesn't Make You Any Better Or Worse. You Are What You Are.

On Sept. 11, 2001, Thousands Of First Responders Heroically Rushed To The Scene And Saved Tens Of Thousands Of Lives. More Than 400 Of Those First Responders Did Not Make It Out Alive. In Rushing Into Those Burning Buildings, Not One Of Them Asked, 'what God Do You Pray To?' What Beliefs Do You Hold?'

I Am What I Am And, You Know, I'm A Very Lucky Guy.

And Because No Matter Who You Are, If You Believe In Yourself And Your Dream, New York Will Always Be The Place For You.

The Public Is Upset. If They Haven't Lost Their Job, They Know Somebody That Has. If They Haven't Lost Their House, They Know Somebody That Has. What Do You Do? When Something's Wrong, It's Government's Job To Fix It, It Must Be Government That's Responsible For Causing It.

We Have Always Had, Remember, Small Groups Of Both Parties That Split Off. There Were The "blue Dog Democrats." There Were The "dixie Democrats." Democrats Were Never Going To, Ever Again, Pull Together.

Ten Years Have Passed Since A Perfect Blue Sky Morning Turned Into The Blackest Of Nights. Since Then We've Lived In Sunshine And In Shadow, And Although We Can Never Unsee What Happened Here, We Can Also See That Children Who Lost Their Parents Have Grown Into Young Adults, Grandchildren Have Been Born And Good Works And Public Service Have Taken Root To Honor Those We Loved And Lost.

We Haven't Had A World War In A Long Time. We Do Have Mass Movements Of People Out Of Syria And North Africa. But, Fundamentally, If You Take Japan, You're Complaining That The Economy Isn't Booming, They'd Like To Have Slightly Higher Inflation.

I Don't Think There's Much Difference Between The Two Parties. I Think Whatever Their Constituents At The Moment Want, That's What They Believe. If Their Constituents Changed, They Would Change Overnight.

Is Your Company So Small You Have To Do Everything For Yourself? Wait Until You're So Big That You Can't. That's Worse.

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