McConnell: We will vote on the 'Green New Deal'
- by Kelli Lowe
- in Global Media
- — Feb 13, 2019
The Green New Deal House resolution introduced last week calls for the elimination of USA greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 through massive investments in clean energy sources and millions of jobs.
Republicans largely remained silent on the Green New Deal late past year when Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and a cadre of left-leaning Democrats began demanding a select committee in the House devoted to the proposal.
McConnell praised the committee of Republicans and Democrats in the Senate and House of Representatives who worked out the deal, including Republican Richard Shelby, the Senate Appropriations Committee chairman.
"I've noted with great interest the Green New Deal and we're going to be voting on that in the Senate", McConnell told reporters Tuesday.
The proposals known as the Green New Deal were crafted in conjunction with Senator Ed Markey of MA. Five of the declared candidates for the party's presidential nomination have signed on as co-sponsors of the measure in the Senate: Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, Kamala Harris of California, Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Cory Booker of New Jersey and Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota. "I support a green new deal".
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi previously told Politico the Green New Deal was a "suggestion", saying it will "be one of severalm or maybe many suggestions that we receive". Last week, a day before the resolution's release, Republicans in two House committees slammed the idea of a "top-down" approach to reducing emissions, calling the Green New Deal too "radical" for the United States.
But the numbers are growing. His status as the vice chair of the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus suggests he could help woo Republican support for the measure.
Ocasio-Cortez countered that Trump is not equipped to give criticism of her House resolution since he "can't even read briefings written in full sentences". He wants to silence your voice so Republicans don't have to explain why they are climate change deniers. The ambitious proposal has been spearheaded by Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
The Kentucky Republican's maneuver is likely an effort to both get the many Democratic senators running for president on the record on the resolution, as well as to demonstrate that there are senators on both sides of the aisle opposed to the outline. McConnell wants to get Democratic presidential candidates on the record about the controversial, but nevertheless exciting policy moonshot, so that Republicans can hit them with attacks mischaracterizing the deal, as Trump did at his El Paso rally on Monday: "I really don't like their policy of taking away your auto, of taking away your airplane rights, of 'let's hop a train to California, ' of you're not allowed to own cows anymore!"
"There's another victim of the Green New Deal, it's ice cream. American favorites like cheeseburgers and milkshake will become a thing of the past", said Sen.
