Tipsheet

McConnell Forcing Dems to Choose a Side on Green New Deal Tuesday

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell will bring the Green New Deal up for a vote on Tuesday, forcing Democrats to take a stand on the radical resolution.

“I could not be more glad that the American people will have the opportunity to learn precisely where each one of their senators stand on the “Green New Deal”: a radical, top-down, socialist makeover of the entire U.S. economy,” he tweeted Monday.

The resolution promises a “massive transformation of our society” through retrofitting every building in American to be energy efficient and eliminating cars, fossil fuel, and air travel, among other unrealistic goals. 

While the measure is unlikely to pass the GOP-controlled Senate, Republicans want to force their colleagues across the aisle to decide how much they want to align themselves with socialist principles in an effort to use it as a wedge issue in the 2020 election. 

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who authored the resolution along with Sen. Ed Markey, said the vote is a “disgrace.”

“The GOP’s whole game of wasting votes in Congress to target others “on the record”, for leg they have no intent to pass, is a disgrace,” she tweeted on Saturday.  “Stop wasting the American peoples’ time + learn to govern. Our jobs aren’t for campaigning, & that’s exactly what these bluff-votes are for.”

According to The New York Times, most Democrats plan to vote present because the resolution is scarce on details and hasn’t received a hearing yet.