By Penny Starr
The House Western Caucus took on Democratic Socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s (D-NY) Green New Deal at a hearing and press conference on Wednesday where they exposed the so-called climate change resolution that aims to transform the country’s economy and infrastructure.
Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ), chairman of the caucus, called it a “socialist manifesto,” but some of those testifying at the hearing went further.
“We will no longer be America if this is done,” Rick Manning, president of Americans for Limited Government, said.
Rep. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) pointed out at the press conference at the Capitol on Wednesday that while many have reacted to the Green New Deal with incredulity, it should be taken seriously. (Penny Starr/Breitbart News)
The radical resolution, which was referred to at the hearing as a “pipe dream,” has been embraced by many Democrats, including some who hope to challenge President Donald Trump in the 2020 election. It calls for ending air travel, the production of fossil fuels, and “social justice” guaranteeing jobs and universal health care for all.
“The Green New Deal is really a nightmare,” Myron Ebell, director of global warming and international environmental policy at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, said.
“I’ve called it ‘back to the dark ages manifesto,’” Ebell said. “I recently started calling it the green leap backward because it’s so much modeled on the great leap forward that the Chinese Communist Party started in 1958.”
“By the time it ended, I believe somewhere between 18 million and 55 million people died of starvation,” Ebell said.
“The green leap backward is preposterous and everything we can do to ridicule it is justified,” Ebell said. “But just because it’s ridiculous and prosperous doesn’t mean that it’s not dangerous.”
Thomas Pyle, president of the American Energy Alliance, was not alone in concluding that the Green New Deal would hurt the very people it claims to help by drastically increasing energy and other costs for consumers, calling the plan “immoral.”
“It’s an especial assault not just on Americans in general but upon rural Americans,” Ebell said.
Marc Morano, the publisher of ClimateDepot.com, said at the hearing that the Green New Deal is neither “green” nor “new” and repeats the same alleged problems and solutions that the left has promoted for decades.
“‘Global warming’ is merely the latest environmental scare with the same solutions of wealth redistribution and central planning,” Morano said in his testimony. “The ‘Green New Deal’ has very little to do with the environment or climate.”
Morano called the plan “one big bowl of crazy” and warned that conservatives should not respond to it with an alternative but oppose it outright.
Rep. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) pointed out at the press conference that while many have reacted to the Green New Deal with incredulity, it should be taken seriously.
“It has nothing to do with fossil fuels,” Mullin said. “It has nothing to do with energy. It has to do with socialism.”
“Think about it. We all laugh when they say we have to replace all the buildings in ten years,” Mullin said. “No, it’s about taking over the buildings in ten years.”
“It’s about taking over our universities, our office buildings, our apartments,” Mullin said. “How else are they going to guarantee housing for all?”
