By Jack Crowe • National Review
Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced Tuesday that the Senate will vote on the Green New Deal resolution introduced last week by a coalition of progressive lawmakers vowing to eliminate all greenhouse-gas emissions within ten years, while simultaneously creating millions of jobs in a government-subsidized green-energy sector.
“I’ve noted with great interest the Green New Deal. And we’re going to be voting on that in the Senate. Give everybody an opportunity to go on record and see how they feel about the Green New Deal,” McConnell said with a sly smile during a Tuesday press conference.
The resolution, which was introduced by Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.) and Senator Ed Markey (D., Mass.) on Friday, provides a sweeping list of climate-change- and social-justice-related measures including the refurbishing of every structure in the country with renewable-energy technology and the creation of millions of federally funded jobs in the green-energy sector.
A “frequently asked questions” document that accompanied the resolution referenced the complete elimination of air travel and farting cows. Ocasio-Cortez has since disavowed the FAQ, which was posted on her website, and suggested her political enemies disseminated the document to sabotage the proposal.
McConnell and Trump are reportedly united in their desire to tie Democrats to the bill’s socialist policy framework ahead of the 2020 elections — an endeavor that should prove simple since virtually the entire 2020 Democratic presidential field endorsed it as soon as it was introduced.
When confronted with the multi-billion-dollar price tag most experts place on the proposal, its allies have argued that climate change is an existential threat that necessitates a national mobilization effort unseen since World World War II.
“There’s a lot of people now going back on the Green New Deal, they’re like ‘Oh it’s impractical, oh it’s too expensive, oh it’s all of this,’” Senator Cory Booker (D., N.J.), one of the many Democratic presidential hopefuls, said during a speech in Mason City, Iowa Friday. “If we used to govern our dreams that way, we would have never gone to the Moon. ‘God, that’s impractical. See that ball in the sky? That’s impractical.’”