McConnell: Senate will vote on the Green New Deal
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said on Tuesday he plans to hold a vote on the progressives’ Green New Deal, a move that could put Democrats — including several presidential hopefuls — on record backing a plan that Republicans have derided as a "socialist fantasy."
"I've noted with great interest the Green New Deal and we're going to be voting on that in the Senate," McConnell said. "We'll give everybody a chance to go on record and see how they feel about the Green New Deal."
The Green New Deal resolution unveiled last week by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez(D-N.Y.) and Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) is an ambitious plan for a 10-year “national mobilization” to move the U.S. economy off fossil fuels to combat climate change, provide health care for all, increase wages and expand union rights. Several presidential hopefuls in the Senate have signed on as co-sponsors to the non-binding resolution, including Sens. Kamala Harris. Elizabeth Warren, Amy Klobuchar, Kirsten Gillibrand and Cory Booker.
McConnell — who previously said it was a waste of the Senate's time to consider bills that would not get White House support — did not provide a specific time frame for a vote.
President Donald Trump and many Republicans have latched on to the plan in an effort to paint Democrats as radicals who are intent on damaging the U.S. economy.
"They want to take away your car, reduce the value of your home and put millions of Americans out of work, spend a $100 trillion," Trump told a rally in El Paso, Texas, on Monday.
Critics have seized on a "talking points" memo erroneously published by Ocasio-Cortez's office that included offering economic security to people unwilling to work and replacing air travel with high-speed rail, though her office pulled the document and said it was an old, unfinished draft.
Supporters of the Green New Deal have said the resolution was designed to lay out goals to fight climate change and address economic inequality rather than as specific policy proposals.
”The first questions Republicans should answer on climate change is: What is their answer on climate change? What are they going to put forward?” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer told reporters.
Voters have increasingly shifted to support action to deal with climate change, and new polls show a growing acceptance of the link between greenhouse gas emissions and climate change — even among Republicans. Monmouth University polling from November, for example, found 64 percent of Republicans believe the science, up 15 percentage points from just three years prior. The poll also found 51 percent of GOP voters supported the government doing more to address the causes of climate change.
But Republicans say the Green New Deal hides its real costs.
“It’s possible the Democrats didn’t provide any details for their plan is because they knew outlining the actual cost would sink their plan from the very beginning,” Senate Majority Whip John Thune (R-S.D.) said Tuesday on the Senate floor. “Like other socialist fantasies this is not a plan that can be paid for by merely taking money from the rich. Actually implementing this so-called Green New Deal would involve taking money from working families.”
Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee, bashed the proposal as a "raw deal."
“I’m looking forward to voting against the Green New Deal, because it’s so bad for the economy and we’ll have an opportunity for Democrats to decide if they want to rubberstamp this lurch to the left that their party seems to be taking right now,” he said.
02/12/2019 02:54 PM EST
Updated 02/12/2019 04:10 PM EST
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That's right Mitch, make 'em put their names on it!
Bigger boondoggle, the California high speed rail or this?
This is, since it will have to be enforced nationwide, while the rail is a single project. This is multiple projects, some of which are actions against nature itself. Think about this, this is supposed to be Green, which is about nature, but one of things that the FAQ talks about is getting rid of cow farts. Guess what folks, farts are a natural process and by-product of digestion. Even when cattle are fonly ed grass, they will create methane from digesting that grass. I know this from experience. In fact, I saw less cow farts from what is called a Total Mixed Ration (TMR) than from them being out in a pasture eating grass most of the time. A TMR is where multiple products are mixed together in a specific recipe given by a nutritionist to maximize production. The products that were in our TMRs were usually corn silage (fermented whole corn plants), haylage (essentially fermented alfalfa), ground corn, cottonseed, grass hay, and a bunch of different mineral supplements.
You are right.
The 77 bllion high speed rail debacle was a warm up exercise for the main event.
Mr. "San Fran" doesn't want to give the taxpayers their money back after California's "Green" fuckup !
That should read "Even when cattle are fed only grass"
This should be fun to see !
Mitch's little smirk when he announced it was going to the floor for a vote …… PRICELESS !
Solar and wind are socialist?
OIL and Coal are the true grit of American patriotism?
Actually, they are for two reasons, 1) both require use of fossil fuels in production either as lubricants for creating the devices used or as lubricants for the use of the devices and 2) both are highly toxic while being produced. Have you see the chemicals that go into making a solar panel? Have you seen the smoke from a wind turbine on fire, it makes a car fire look clean.
Democrats seem to be pissed now !
"Sen. Ed Markey says Mitch McConnell is trying to ‘sabotage’ the Green New Deal by calling a vote."
IT'S SABOTAGE I TELLYA.....SABOTAGE !
Wonder why the Democrats are sooooo afraid ?
I just got back from a trip to twenty years into the future on my time machine. The east coast was about 30 miles from where it is now, there were hurricanes in the winter, and the average high in the summer in the Midwest was 150 degrees. Republicans were busy fighting the fake news about human induced climate change … and demanding Hillary Clinton's emails.