Green New Deal Senate Vote
Political stunt or destructive socialist daydream?
The Green New Deal (GND) vote yesterday cooked up Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R–Ky.) aimed to embarrass the Democrats who had co-sponsored the GND resolution calling on U.S. energy consumption to be carbon-free by 2030. Besides outlining ambitious plans for the transformation of the U.S. energy production sector, the resolution introduced in February by Sen. Ed Markey (D–Mass.) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez basically laid out a comprehensive government-run central plan for the entire economy including guaranteed jobs, free health care, and affordable housing for all.
When the vote on the resolution was called, it failed to pass by a vote of 0 to 57 with all Republican and four Democratic senators voting no. The remaining Democratic senators merely voted "present," thus avoiding having to take a public stand on the vast progressive plan to remake the American economy.
"The American people will see, they will see which of their senators can do the common-sense thing and vote no on this destructive socialist daydream. And they will see which senators are so fully committed to radical left-wing ideology that they can't even vote no on self-inflicted economic ruin," McConnell declared.
Democratic Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D–N.Y.) countered, "Republicans want to force this political stunt to distract from the fact that they neither have a plan nor a sense of urgency to deal with the threat of climate change. … It's a political act. It's a political stunt."
Both senators are right.