Mississippi’s Senators in D.C. have voted against the ‘Green New Deal’.
On Tuesday, the Senate voted 0-57 on a motion to advance the bill forward with 43 Democrats voting present.
According to Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith, ‘The Green New Deal’ would establish a 10-year “national mobilization effort” to eliminate fossil fuel used in the United States in order to meet net-zero greenhouse gas emissions, while also mandating that all businesses and homes be retrofitted to meet green standards. It also calls for the removal of greenhouse gas emissions from the transportation and agricultural sectors. Among other things, the plan also calls for guaranteed government healthcare, housing, and higher education.
The American Action Forum estimates that the proposal, authored by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D) and Senator Ed Markey (D), would cost taxpayers up to $93 trillion.
After the vote, Senator Roger Wicker said that the plan was likely “the most economically-disastrous and expensive proposal ever considered by the Senate.”
“The ‘Green New Deal’ is likely the most economically-disastrous and expensive proposal ever considered by the Senate,” Wicker said. “The plan would replace today’s economic growth, low unemployment, and rising wages with bankruptcy, unattainable mandates, and the failed policies of socialism. These ideas have become mainstream in the Democratic Party with more than 100 congressional cosponsors including many presidential candidates. Today’s vote was a necessary rebuke of this outlandish and absurd proposal.”
Hyde-Smith agreed with Wicker, calling the plan a non-starter.
“Objective assessments show that the Green New Deal is an impractical and expensive plan that would eliminate whole industries and millions of jobs. It is a complete non-starter,” Hyde-Smith said. “I think most Americans would be alarmed by any plan that directs the government to forcibly restructure the entire country while putting our economy and national security at risk. Meanwhile, our competitors would just carry on.”
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called the vote a “sham” and said that the vote was used a political stunt.
“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,” Schumer said. “Everyone knows it’s a stunt, including the majority leader himself. He put something on the floor and then votes no. What’s the point of that?”
The House has yet to vote on the proposal.
