WASHINGTON – Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez defended the ambitious Green New Deal to address climate change Tuesday after the measure failed to secure a vote in the Senate and Republican lawmakers mocked it as fantasy.
The freshman New York Democrat, who co-sponsored the legislation directed much of her ire at Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah.
Lee drew media attention Tuesday by ridiculing the Green New Deal on the Senate floor using posters depicting scenes from films such as Star Wars and Aquaman, as well as a painting of former President Ronald Reagan firing a sub-machine gun from the back of what appeared to be a velociraptor.
Lee said he was treating the Green New Deal “with the seriousness it deserves.” He explained the Reagan image had “as much to do with overcoming communism in the 20th century as the Green New Deal has to do with overcoming climate change in the 21st.”
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The Green New Deal seeks to move the U.S. completely off of fossil fuels within a decade and establish universal employment.
In a tweet, Ocasio-Cortez said legislators, experts and environmental advocates “spent countless hours poring over” data on industrial impact on global temperatures and the resulting rising sea levels.
“That’s what you do when you take your job seriously + respect the chamber. This is what happens when you don’t,” she said, followed by a link to Lee’s unusual presentation.
