New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has no reason to be in the 2020 Democratic primary. But he thinks he does, and that is apparently good enough for him.

The mayor’s latest desperate gambit to achieve some level of relevance in the 2020 race came this week in the form of a Wired op-ed titled, “Why American Workers Need to Be Protected From Automation.”

I will sum up the article for you: As president, de Blasio would impose a robot tax. For the workers!

Yes, a robot tax.

“As mayor of New York, and as a candidate for President focused on the needs of working people, I’ve seen at home and across the country that workers can benefit from these technological changes, but we can’t let American jobs be replaced by them,” de Blasio’s op-ed reads. “That’s why I’m proposing a new plan today to protect American workers and ensure that we all share in the gains from technological advancement.”

It adds, “To start, my plan calls for a new federal agency, the Federal Automation and Worker Protection Agency (FAWPA), to oversee automation and safeguard jobs and communities.”

The mayor’s op-ed continues:

FAWPA would create a permitting process for any company seeking to increase automation that would displace workers. Approval of those plans would be conditioned on protecting workers; if their jobs are eliminated through automation, the company would be required to offer their workers new jobs with equal pay, or a severance package in line with their tenure at the company.



Additionally, my plan would close tax loopholes worth hundreds of billions of dollars for corporations that invest in automation and then often deduct it on their taxes, even if they know that their “investment” will likely destroy their employees’ jobs.



Lastly, my proposal would institute a “robot tax” on large companies that eliminate jobs through increased automation and fail to provide adequate replacement jobs. They’d be required to pay five years of payroll taxes up front for each employee eliminated. That revenue would go right into a new generation of labor-intensive, high-employment infrastructure projects and new jobs in areas such as health care and green energy that would provide new employment. Displaced workers would be guaranteed new jobs created in these fields at comparable salaries.

Wait a minute. Automation is 2020 Democratic candidate Andrew Yang’s bag. De Blasio is making a play for the 2020 tech bro’s 2.6% of potential primary voters! If de Blasio were to pull this off (Har! Har!), it would mean the mayor, who is polling at around 0.5%, would have a whole ... 3.1% of support.

Hey, it is better than where the mayor is polling now, I guess.

De Blasio is floundering partly because he offers nothing that is not already being championed by more likable and competent ultra-liberal candidates, including Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders. Unfortunately for him, no robot tax can hide his record in New York City nor the irrelevance of his candidacy.