Why Alexandria Cortez’s new Green Deal spells disaster for our country
Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
Tyler Gidseg | Treasurer
For today’s topic, I think it’s fitting to use the Looney Toons theme song alongside the face of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez — the climate change Socialist that even some Democrats think is too crazy.
She’s the same one who decries income inequality while wearing very expensive designer clothes.
And she’s the same one who during President Trump’s State of the Union address didn’t have an ounce of respect to clap with the majority of the House chamber for World War II veterans, nor parents of daughters who were killed by gang members.
Rep. Ocasio-Cortez has a very radical socialist agenda for America that would completely reverse all of Trump’s economic accomplishments, bring us into a financial disaster, and centralize even more government control over our lives.
She is, after all, a younger version of Bernie Sanders, the overtly socialist senator from Vermont.
For the sake of this Green Deal, I’ll contribute by explaining how bad it is over the course of this article. Please bear with me, we survived 2012 — the year and the movie. I promise temperatures won’t rise, unless you’re a liberal.
Recently, Ocasio-Cortez produced a climate resolution that if implemented will fundamentally destroy our American way of life. It is a new socioeconomic, climate change package that is powered by unicorns. There is just no way to take this idea seriously.
This Green Deal is a resolution that was introduced on Feb. 7. It was authored primarily by Rep. Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), and Rep. Ed Mersky (D-Mass).
Essentially, they have structured the framework for a completely asinine plan that is the epitome of very bad public policy. This plan would bring a mind-bogglingly massive change to our economy and would call for the elimination of all carbon emissions.
There would be real-world consequences if any portion of this Green Deal was made into law. Countless industries would be destroyed, thousands would lose their jobs, the very fabric of our economy would be uprooted, and the time frame to do it all would be unachievable.
On the day she unveiled her Green Deal proposal, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi subsequently announced a new committee charged with dealing with the issue of climate change. The real plot twist is Rep. Ocasio-Cortez was left surprisingly absent from this committee.
Reports on this issue have been conflicting as to whether she voluntarily stepped down or was denied entry into the committee. Colby Itkowitz, from the Washington Post, reported that she was invited to the committee but declined.
However, I find this doubtful.
This should come as suspect, since we know that this is a subject she very deeply cares about. According to Itkowitz, “Ocasio-Cortez has indicated that the panel Pelosi put together didn’t have enough teeth to be effective. But she also said unequivocally that Pelosi is a leader on climate change.”
This comes off as contradictory, as she has made climate change a highlight of her time on the campaign trail as well as during her tenure in office. Moreover, it is a committee that other congressional freshmen were assigned to.
I’m not putting the character of Rep. Ocasio-Cortez into question, as I’m sure she’s very amicable. Instead I am scrutinizing her public policy as inchoate, political virtue signaling that will subvert our country by bringing us into economic ruin if it gets turned into law.
First we must understand that America is built on the founding principles of life, liberty, property and free markets which Cortez views as malicious.
The problem is she, like Trump, is now the star of her party. She lauds socialist ideals, which are now solidifying within the party.
Needless to say, the Democratic Party has strayed from what it used to be.
In the past they were for the middle class, but now they have taken on this new extreme policy of identity politics with a socialist agenda.
We know empirically that socialism doesn’t work and historically has never been a sustainable form of government. The basic tenets of the ideology are mired in destitution and misery.
After all, we don’t have to look very far to see the horrible effects of it.
Venezuela is facing an abject disaster: government-controlled healthcare, restriction on the markets and hyperinflation. Millions of people have fled the country due to the manufactured conditions caused by the Maduro regime.
The association between the Green Deal and socialism is that this plan would have to use the threat of force from the government to be able to enact any of the listed requirements on the deal.
The Federalist lists some of the mandates that are in the resolution:
- ban on affordable fuels
- elimination of nuclear energy
- elimination of 99% of cars
- gut and rebuild every building in America
- elimination of air travel
- guaranteed government jobs
- free education for life
- safe, affordable housing
- ban on meat
Comically, it’s also fair to point out that the accompanying FAQ page associated with Cortez’s Green Deal is mysteriously missing. I don’t think you need Scooby-Doo to figure out how incredibly telling that is.
However, you can view it in its entirety on the Federalist website.
The good news is I believe this is all a good thing.
These ideas give the left a platform for everyone to see. Any rational person can see that these ideas are completely unfeasible. What’s laughable is comparing historical events such as World War II and the moon landing as tantamount to this Green Deal proposal.
However, liberal lunacy doesn’t stop there. We can just look at California, which is the de-facto petri dish playground for the left. The New York Times reported that Sacramento, in an effort to regulate greenhouse gases, tried to curb cow farts. This is just another example of unreasonable regulation.
So how do we pay for this Green Deal? The only way to do any of this would be to increase taxes astronomically.
Noah Smith from Bloomberg contends that these provisions are unrealistic. He goes on to say, “Ocasio-Cortez’s Green New Deal appears to take every big spending idea that has emerged on the political left in recent years and combine them into one large package deal, with little notion of how to pay for them all.”
Negative public opinion for this is to be expected, but laughably most members in her own party won’t defend it. Even the biased media which heavily favors the left abscond to report positively on this proposal.
The MIT Technology Review said that it would cost trillions just to overhaul the energy sector. Energy researcher Christopher Clack, chief executive of Vibrant Energy, “found it would cost around $27 trillion “to build, operate and retire” all the necessary plants by 2030, he said on Twitter. That would run approximately $2.7 trillion a year”.
What’s even more interesting: Rep. Ocasio-Cortez’s page describing the Green Deal was furtively taken down. Additionally, David Harsanyi from The Federalist also mentions that the Green Deal would “necessitate a communist strongman to institute, but also because the societal costs are unfathomable.”
To put it simply, this Green Deal would be an incorrigible disaster that would completely annihilate the US economy, transportation and infrastructure.
The Democratic Party really needs to reevaluate their goals before they lose their voting base entirely.
Right on Campus, Inc. 