Posted on 12/25/2018 5:46:45 PM PST by vannrox
Democrats are lining up to support Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s “Green New Deal.”
The proposal could be the largest expansion of government since the Great Society or New Deal.
Ocasio-Cortez’s plan could cost tens of trillions of dollars.
Democrats are increasingly lining up to support a “Green New Deal,” which, while vague on details, could end up being the largest expansion of government in decades.
As it stands, the “Green New Deal” is more aspirational than actual policy. Indeed, it takes its name from the New Deal of the 1930s, and its main backer, incoming Democratic New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, compared it to the Great Society of the 1960s.
More than 40 Democratic lawmakers support the “Green New Deal” as part of a broad plan to fight global warming and bring about what they see as “economic, social and racial justice.” A poll found most Americans supported the deal, but knew little about it.
But the big question is when Americans find out what’s in the “Green New Deal,” will they be willing to pay for it?
Ocasio-Cortez’s “Green New Deal” calls for creating a House committee to draft legislation to fight global warming and turn the U.S. economy into something akin to what Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders envisions. Indeed, the “Green New Deal” could be a preview of what policies the Democratic Party will back in the 2020 elections.
“This is going to be the New Deal, the Great Society, the moon shot, the civil-rights movement of our generation,” Ocasio-Cortez said at a panel event in early December alongside Sanders, a likely 2020 presidential contender.
Those goals include moving the U.S. to 100 percent green energy, federal job guarantees for workings forced out of their fossil fuel jobs, guaranteed minimum income and universal health care.
Democrats will take control of the House in 2019 and many want to see global warming become a central part of their agenda. Republicans are unlikely to go along with a green deal in any form, and cracks are even appearing among Democrats on climate policy.
Since the “Green New Deal” lacks specifics, it’s hard to gauge the total cost, but similar climate and welfare policies are estimated to cost trillions of dollars.
For starters, moving the U.S. to a 100-percent renewable electric grid could cost as much as $5.2 trillion over two decades, according to a 2010 study by the conservative Heritage Foundation. That’s about $218 billion to move the grid away from coal and natural gas.
On top of that, the non-energy-related portions of the Green New Deal could cost trillions more, including universal health care and guaranteed income.
The libertarian Mercatus Center released a study in July that found Sanders’s “Medicare for All” plan would cost $32.6 trillion over 10 years. That same month, hedge-fund manager Ray Dalio estimated the cost to taxpayers of a universal basic income policy would top $3.8 trillion a year — and that’s assuming every American citizen got just $12,000 a year.
For comparison, the Great Society policies pursued by the Johnson administration during the 1960s cost $22 trillion, according to estimates from the Heritage Foundation. Former President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s “New Deal” of the 1930s during the Great Depression cost $500 billion in today’s dollars, The Nation reported in 2008.
Of course, both the New Deal and Great Society have left U.S. taxpayers on the hook for trillions in debt and unfunded liabilities — somewhere between $87 trillion and $222 trillion.
It is obvious who has control of the government today.
The Big Green Weenie? No Thanks
It’s time for a renewal of our founding principles.
They gotta get the government open first!
Lol!
Libtards are griping about Trump’s government shutdown, how people aren’t getting their salaries. But THEIR enormous expansion of government will cost everyone PERMANENTLY by deducting a huge amount of taxes permanently, not just delaying their paychecks for a couple-three weeks. Are people that stupid that they can’t see that? Must you have an IQ of 70 to be a libtard?
Good God. Where in sam hell would all the money come from? They would have to tax everything at 80%.
Hope someone gave President Trump some extra VETO stamps and plenty of stamp pads. They should get NO quarter from him after the hateful way they’ve acted.
It now makes sense why the Democrats closed all of the insane asylums.
‘A poll’ found most Americans support it, but know little about it.
‘A poll’?? Geez, they don’t even claim which poll it’s supposed to be, yet we are supposed to believe them?? RIDICULOUS!!
Those Federal employees get back pay for all the days they didn’t work.
I guess the yellow vest protests in Europe mean nothing to these numskulls.
I had enough of that in the Army. I am not hankering for more.
I reckon this will be another one of those “we have to pass it to find out what is in it” deals.
The senate will never go along with it and if they did, trump will have no problem vetoing any of it.
Whatever. If they believed that agenda was so scary popular, then why didn’t they campaign on it?
Think anyone in those Red Districts voted for the “moderate” democrats expecting this? Oh no, it was “if you vote for me I will not support Pelosi as Speaker, blah blah blah, sound like Trump, blah blah. ”
Yah, right. Now, it’s “lockstep time” behind a far left wing agenda.
Thanks for buying the moderate Hulu dance suckers!! Now their coming for your freedom. But hey, at least you suburbanan voters taught that meanie boor Trump a lesson about tweeting. Your hand itched so you cut off your arm. That fixed it.
Repeat after me suburban ladies driving your big SUV’s that will soon be banned, there is no such thing as a “moderate” democrat. A moderate democrat wants to sound pleasant as they take your freedom and curse your children as products of “white Privilege.”
[ Where in would all the money come from? ]
Don’t worry. The Democrats iz smarter than youse or I.
Theys tell us dis all da time at da Yahoo.
Deys be geniuses. Praise Obama!
Whom the gods would destroy they first make mad
America is turning Communist faster than I imagined..The Dems stole the House but doesn’t matter..eventually would have happened..in a few years we wont recognize this country anymore
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