Republicans lash out at Green New Deal
Photo: Scott Applewhite/AP
During Monday night’s rally in El Paso, TX President Trump railed against the Green New Deal resolution that was introduced by Congressional Democrats last week saying that it “sounds like a high school term paper that got a low mark.” As CNN explained, Trump brushed off policy proposals from Democrats, saying the push from progressive lawmakers “all has to do with 2020 and the election” The president further expressed his displeasure with the bold democratic plan by stating that “I really don’t like their policies of taking away your car, taking away your airplane flights, of ‘let’s hop a train to California,’ or ‘you’re not allowed to own cows anymore!'”
Additionally, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) announced yesterday that he wants the Senate to take a vote on the Green New Deal. Stating at a press conference that “I’ll give everybody an opportunity to go on record and see how they feel about the Green New Deal.” In response to this,
Senator Ed Markey (D-MA) who introduced the legislation with Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio said in a statement that
“Republicans don’t want to debate climate change, they only want to deny it. They have offered no plan to address this economic and national security threat and want to sabotage any effort that makes Big Oil and corporate polluters pay. The principles of the Green New Deal resonate with the American people – a mission to save all of creation by investing in massive job creation. The Green New Deal resolution has struck a powerful chord in this country, and Republicans, climate deniers, and the fossil fuel industry are going to end up on the wrong side of history.”
Why This Matters: At this point, the Green New Deal is not legislation but a starting point for framing our discussion and negotiation of legislation that will address climate change. Climate change is such a massive issue that is affected by nearly every sector of our economy that curbing our GHG emissions requires big thinking and bold action. People often forget this but the original New Deal was not one piece of legislation but instead, it was a culmination of numerous bills and executive actions. Additionally, President Franklin D. Roosevelt was routinely accused of being a
communist and a socialist for the programs that he proposed (which are wildly popular now with the American public like Social Security) in
almost the exact fashion that President Trump and Congressional Republicans are criticizing the Green New Deal.
February 13, 2019 » AOC, climate change, Ed Markey, Green New Deal, Mitch McConnell
