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.
That would be true for example in Venezuela, but regular people there can’t even buy candles now. /not joking
They know it will die in the senate, so why not throw it all up against the wall? Over the next year we will see the true face of evil that is the Democrat party.
Why slow walk the country to hell when you can take a bullet train?
No way such a program passes either the House or the Senate, much less arrive on POTUS desk.
BOHICA
That's right. Fork over, peasant ...
Tax? They plan on TAKING everything. Then, when there is nothing left, they will begin the genocide.
We’ll have real “economic, social and racial justice” when the economy completely collapses under the debt burden. The risk of US default is rising rapidly and our creditors are going to be demanding higher risk premiums.
There simply is NO money left except for Constitutional essentials.
But facts never get in the way of vote-buying pols.
No worries.
It’s not like us taxpayers, and by extension the US Government, is ever going to pay for what is already obligated, much less this new mountain.
It won’t happen because it can’t happen.
And you can take that to the bank.
AOC sez “You WILL eat the Big Green Weenie and you WILL enjoy it.”
AOC sez “Just pay for it.”
Duh. Do we really have to spell everything out for you. She has a degree in economics, so she can’t be wrong.
Not yet it doesn’t.
Senate will never pass those bills. Trump is on a mood to veto everything
That is true through 2020. Then all bets are off. The Dems could win on this platform because of the indoctrinated, brain-dead electorate. “Free Stuff” always plays well.
Maybe 5 billion for LGBTQ studies and illegal immigrant rights advocates. Each.
That is no problem! They’ll take all of the riches’ money for the first year.
Then, next year, they will do it again! What? The rich won’t have any money for the second year? Of, course they will. That is their job, to be rich!
Do I sound like a socialist, now?
Prolly have to pass it to know what’s in it...
As soon as Dems gain a majority in the House, first thing on the agenda is RAISE TAXES.
Not only that, RAISE TAXES and EXPAND GOVERNMENT.
This is the group that said they couldn't find $5 Billion, a measly .004% of the budget, for the wall.
I've heard it all before from you libs, promises of more freebies (that never were and never will be free).
But wait a minute, where's my free college education you promised me? My wallet used have money in it, now it's full of worthless bogus checks I can never cash, promises you will never keep.
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