On Tuesday, the Senate rejected the non-binding Green New Deal resolution proposed by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., with 42 Democrats and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., voting "present" rather than signing their names to what is very likely the most radical, dangerous, destructive policy offered in decades.
Calling the vote a “sham,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., organized the effort by Democratic members of the Senate to vote “present” – an astounding move considering that more than 100 liberals in Congress have already endorsed the proposal, including Senators Cory Booker, D-N.J., Kamala Harris, D-Calif., Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass.
While it might appear on the surface that Democrats are backing away from the Green New Deal, don’t be fooled. Senate Democrats’ cowardly decision to refuse to vote for their own proposal is nothing more than a political stunt meant to confuse moderate voters Democrats will need to win support from in 2020.
SEN. TED CRUZ: GREEN NEW DEAL PROMISES TO DESTROY THE AMERICAN ENERGY INDUSTRY AS WE KNOW IT
The Green New Deal would eliminate nearly all U.S. carbon dioxide emissions in 10 years by ending electricity generation from coal, natural gas, and oil; replacing each of the 260 million gasoline-powered cars on America’s roads with much more expensive electric cars; and imposing “upgrades” for every single home and business building in the country – not just for energy efficiency, but also for “comfort,” “safety,” and “affordability.”
Instead of using low-cost coal, oil, and natural gas, Americans would be forced to pay for the construction and maintenance of hundreds of thousands of wind turbines and solar panels, which provide unreliable energy at a significantly higher cost.
Not only would 3.4 million jobs in the energy industry be destroyed by the Green New Deal, at the very least, millions of other jobs would likely be shipped overseas by GND’s mandate to end the use of fossil fuels in all U.S. industries, including the entire manufacturing sector and agriculture.
Accomplishing the Green New Deal’s goals would require tearing up hundreds of thousands of acres of land and potentially killing hundreds of millions of birds to achieve, making the Green New Deal environmentally disastrous.
And that’s just the start. The Green New Deal includes dozens of other socialist provisions, many of which have absolutely nothing to do with energy or climate change. For example, the Green New Deal would create a single-payer health care system, federal jobs guarantee that would offer a job even to those “unwilling to work,” basic income programs, a massive new regulatory scheme, a system of publicly owned banks, and it would promise “economic security” and universal access to healthy foods.
All told, the Green New Deal could cost as much as $94 trillion in the first decade, according to the American Action Forum. To put that shocking number in perspective, that’s more than four times the current national debt, which stands at $22 trillion. Even if Democrats were to confiscate every single penny from every billionaire on the planet, it wouldn’t even pay for 10 percent of the Green New Deal’s cost.
Despite the Green New Deal’s economically destructive, environmentally toxic policies, Democrats have largely backed the proposal. Why, then, are they choosing to run away from it now?
Democrats’ extremist wing has dragged the rest of the party further to the left than it has ever been, and party leaders know that tens of millions of American voters who identify as independents or moderate Democrats aren’t willing to go off the socialist cliff with the rest of them. If Democrats were to openly vote in favor of the Green New Deal, it would make those candidates virtually unelectable in certain parts of the country, including in key swing states. If they were to vote against it, the most radical liberals in the party would surely attempt to push the more reasonable members of Congress out in 2020, creating significant conflict within the party.
Democrats’ plan from now until Election Day is going to be to support the Green New Deal among far-left voters while simultaneously distancing themselves from some of the more radical elements of the plan when speaking to moderates. Or, put simply, liberals and democratic socialists in the Democratic Party are going to lie to moderates to help their chances in 2020, knowing all the while that if they were to seize power in the next election, they would use it to pass as much of the Green New Deal as possible.
The Green New Deal isn’t about saving polar bears or stopping climate change, it’s about socialism. If the purpose of the plan really were to halt “catastrophic” global warming, then Democrats wouldn’t waste a single penny pushing on trying to implement their numerous socialist policies. If the world really is about to end because of climate change (it’s not), then why would anyone be concerned with a program to create universal access to healthy foods or free college tuition?
Perhaps most importantly, Democrats know that nothing we do in the United States will reduce the current level of global CO2 emissions. The rest of the world is increasing its CO2 emissions at such a high rate that it will more than offset any carbon dioxide emissions reductions we make in America over the next decade.
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With all this in mind, it’s easy to see why the Green New Deal would be politically disastrous, especially in the Midwest and other more moderate parts of the country the Democrats will need to win over in 2020 to beat President Trump.
So, for now, Democrats will continue to confuse and mislead voters, all while quietly telling their most radical left-wing supporters that they are devoted to worshiping at the altar of climate alarmism.