Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told the progressives who introduced the Green New Deal that he will be allowing a vote on it. He wants his Democratic colleagues to "go on record" with their support of it. Several of the already announced 2020 candidates have endorsed it, but McConnell is eager for them to actually show it. Do they believe, as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's (D-NY) Green New Deal demands, that we need to reduce air travel and upgrade every building in the country to cater to their new environmental regulations?
As it turns out, Democrats aren't too eager to vote on it. Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA), who co-authored the environmental plan, spoke for some of his colleagues by telling McConnell he sees through his announcement and knows that this is just an attempt to "sabotage" their environmental efforts.
Don’t let Mitch McConnell fool you: this is nothing but an attempt to sabotage the movement we are building. He wants to silence your voice so Republicans don’t have to explain why they are climate change deniers. McConnell wants this to be the end, this is just the beginning. https://t.co/GUxJ5HG2jb
— Ed Markey (@SenMarkey) February 12, 2019
Don’t let Mitch McConnell fool you: this is nothing but an attempt to sabotage the movement we are building. He wants to silence your voice so Republicans don’t have to explain why they are climate change deniers. McConnell wants this to be the end, this is just the beginning. https://t.co/GUxJ5HG2jb
— Ed Markey (@SenMarkey) February 12, 2019
Sure, McConnell may have been trying to put Democrats on the spot, but if the latter is so adamant about their Green New Deal, why wouldn't they be celebrating and jumping at the chance to vote on it?
If I may borrow a rather good point from Twitchy: "There’s no time for a debate or a “national conversation” on climate change: the earth only has 12 years left according to Ocasio-Cortez. The Green New Deal needs to be put into action immediately … doesn’t it?"
RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel wondered the same thing.
The very same Democrats who wrote the #GreenNewDeal are freaking out that @Senatemajldr wants the Senate to vote on it.
— Ronna McDaniel (@GOPChairwoman) February 13, 2019
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said we’ll all be dead in 12 years if we don’t pass her socialist plan.
Shouldn’t they want a vote ASAP?
Others are (tepidly) admiring the Republican leader's strategy. Vox, for instance, analyzed McConnell's "prescient" move:
"But McConnell is hoping to put Democrats in an uncomfortable political position with this vote, especially since the Green New Deal’s rollout has already been marred by mistakes and mixed messages."
Some Democrats joined Republicans in publicly mocking Ocasio-Cortez's measure, dismissing it as "the green dream or whatever."