It’s a fine line. I’m not one to attack Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) on everything because that is what the Left does with Trump, but when it comes to policy that could destroy the country, curb freedom, and relegate this nation to something out of a socialist hellhole, then by all means, go at it.
This week, Ocasio-Cortez, one of the faces of the far left, pitched her New Green Deal, which was rightfully laughed out of the room. It called for a complete transition away from fossil fuels…within a decade, upgrading all buildings in the country, and the slaughter of all cows because their farts produce methane. No, I’m not kidding. Oh, and “economic security for all who are unable or unwilling to work.”
1) By the end of the Green New Deal resolution (and accompanying fact sheet) I was laughing so hard I nearly cried. If a bunch of GOPers plotted to forge a fake Democratic bill showing how bonkers the party is, they could not have done a better job. It is beautiful. #GreenNewDeal
— Kimberley Strassel (@KimStrassel) February 7, 2019
2) See Ron Bailey for look at sheer number of turbines, solar panels, facilities necessary just for the "renewable electricity" bit. Wud need 500k square km, bigger than California. Also note, govt will pay for these--not private sector. https://t.co/wQ0C6wonha
— Kimberley Strassel (@KimStrassel) February 7, 2019
3) Also, AOC would put charging stations "everywhere," upgrade or tear down "every building" in the country (homes and businesses), install high-speed rail across every state, upgrade all our infrastructure. (Maybe once Ds allow permitting reform? LOL. LOL. LOL.)
— Kimberley Strassel (@KimStrassel) February 7, 2019
4)Somehow, government-run healthcare, "family sustainable" wages, paid leave, and "affordable" housing are also "required" for a clean economy. I would love to understand this logic. (And imagine what wages will need to be to pay for billion-dollar-per-kilowatt electricity)
— Kimberley Strassel (@KimStrassel) February 7, 2019
5) Key part though people is bit in fact sheet that explains why resolution is not immediately banning fossil fuels or demanding zero-emissions across economy. Because "we aren't sure that we'll be able to fully get rid of farting cows and airplanes that fast." Note "fully."
— Kimberley Strassel (@KimStrassel) February 7, 2019
6) Planes run on fossil fuel. No fossil fuel, no visits to granny. Cows produce methane, why alarmists want to get rid of livestock. She can't do it "fully" in 10 years, but AOC is coming after ur air miles and bacon. This is honesty about how Ds wud micromanage private life.
— Kimberley Strassel (@KimStrassel) February 7, 2019
7)And how to pay for mass trillions in cost? Don't worry! Federal Reserve will just "extend credit" And "new public banks can be created to extend credit too." Because, you know, like, money is just paper, and how hard can it be to make some more of the stuff, right? Right?
— Kimberley Strassel (@KimStrassel) February 7, 2019
The Wall Street Journal’sKimberley Strassel read the proposal, had a good laugh, and then proceeded to take the little socialist that could” to the woodshed for having a brain dead agenda that, in keeping with Democratic social policy tradition, leaves out the price tag and the taxes that would need to be applied to pay for all of this. We all saw how the same people reacted to when pressed about Medicare for All. They had no answer, though we all had a ballpark figure: some $30+ trillion in the first ten years.
On Thursday Ms. Ocasio-Cortez unveiled her vaunted Green New Deal, complete with the details of how Democrats plan to reach climate nirvana in a mere 10 years. It came in the form of a resolution, sponsored in the Senate by Massachusetts’ Edward Markey, on which AOC is determined to force a full House vote. That means every Democrat in Washington will get to go on the record in favor of abolishing air travel, outlawing steaks, forcing all American homeowners to retrofit their houses, putting every miner, oil rigger, livestock rancher and gas-station attendant out of a job, and spending trillions and trillions more tax money. Oh, also for government-run health care, which is somehow a prerequisite for a clean economy.
It’s a GOP dream, especially because the media presented her plan with a straight face—as a legitimate proposal from a legitimate leader in the Democratic Party. Republicans are thrilled to treat it that way in the march to 2020, as their set-piece example of what Democrats would do to the economy and average Americans if given control. The Green New Deal encapsulates everything Americans fear from government, all in one bonkers resolution.
It is for starters, a massive plan for the government to take over and micromanage much the economy. Take the central plank, its diktat of producing 100% of U.S. electricity “through clean, renewable, and zero-emission energy sources” by 2030. As Ron Bailey at Reason has noted, a 2015 plan from Stanford envisioning the goal called for the installation of 154,000 offshore wind turbines, 335,000 onshore wind turbines, 75 million residential photovoltaic (solar) systems, 2.75 million commercial solar systems, and 46,000 utility-scale solar facilities. AOC has been clear it will be government building all this, not the private sector.
Buried in the details, the Green New Deal also promises government control of the most fundamental aspects of private life. The fact sheet explains why the resolution doesn’t call for “banning fossil fuels” or for “zero” emissions across the entire economy—at least at first. It’s because “we aren’t sure that we’ll be able to fully get rid of farting cows and airplanes that fast” (emphasis mine).
This is an acknowledgment that planes don’t run on anything but fossil fuel. No jet fuel, no trips to see granny. It’s also an acknowledgment that livestock produce methane, which has led climate alarmists to engage in “meatless Mondays.” AOC may not prove able to eradicate “fully” every family Christmas or strip of bacon in a decade, but that’s the goal.
Alas, why I, and I’m sure many others, very much liked President Trump’s declaration that this nation has to remain free, and that “America will never be a socialist country.”
Look no further than Venezuela, folks.
