Epic Failure for Ocasio-Cortez’s Green New Deal

Epic Failure for Ocasio-Cortez’s Green New Deal

Bill Sheridan

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s pet project, the so-called “Green New Deal” was resoundingly rejected by the Senate in what could only be called an epic fail for the freshman congresswoman.

In what continues to be a very good week for the Right, on Tuesday not a single senator voted to begin debate on the non-binding resolution, with 42 Democrats and even Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., simply voting “present.”

57 lawmakers voted against breaking the filibuster. Democratic Sens. Doug Jones of Alabama, Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona joined 53 Republicans in voting “no.” Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, who caucuses with the Democrats, also voted “no.”

In total that means the vote was 57-0, the nonbinding measure falling painfully short of the necessary 60-vote threshold needed to advance to debate on the Senate floor.

Since its inception, Republicans have resoundingly lambasted the Green New Deal for its socialist implications and hefty price tag. Sen. Charles E Grassley, R-Iowa, has likened the proposal to a “utopian manifesto,” while Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., called it a “socialist fantasy.”

But the unanimous rejection of the proposal by practically the entire Senate, proves that even members of Ocasio-Cortez’s own party agree that the poorly thought-out legislation would be disastrous for America. Among some of the more ridiculous aspects of the proposal, Ocasio-Cortez called for the entire elimination of the aviation industry and instead replace every airplane on the planet with high-speed trains!

The vote had been teed up by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., in a bid to make Democratic senators — including several 2020 presidential candidates — go on the record about the measure.

Democrats, led by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, called McConnell’s move a “sham vote” that aimed to draw attention away from a real debate on the consequences of climate change. In addition to Sanders, Sens. Kamala Harris of California, Cory Booker of New Jersey, Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and Kirsten Gillibrand of New York — all candidates for the Democratic nomination who have endorsed the Green New Deal — voted “present” Tuesday.

Ocasio-Cortez Forced to Defend Her Position

Ocasio-Cortez said that while the proposal may have gone down, Americans would eventually need to pay to address climate change one way or another. She unleashed an unabashed defense of her Green New Deal during a House committee meeting on the same day the proposal went down in flames in the Senate.

“We’re going to pay for this whether we pass a Green New Deal or not. We need to decide whether we’re going to pay to react or we’re going to pay to be proactive,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “I’m very sad to say that the government knew that climate change was real starting as far back as 1989. I’m going to turn 30 this year, and for the entire 30 years of my lifetime, we did not make substantial investments to prepare our entire country for what we knew was coming.”

Ocasio-Cortez’s remarks came during a committee hearing where several Republicans used their floor time to attack the Democrats’ environmental strategy. Rep. Sean Duffy (R-Wis.) accused the party of touting policies that would solely help “rich liberals,” but alienate poorer Americans.

“I think it’s rich that we talk about how we care about the poor, but all the while we’ll sign on to bills that will dramatically raise the cost for a family to get into a home,” Duffy said while speaking about a measure related to homelessness. He later called the Green New Deal “absolutely outrageous.”