Sunday, March 31, 2019

Chuck and Nancy want you to stop talking so much about the Green New Deal

The day after the Green New Deal went down in a "Stunt" Senate vote, Democratic leaders started changing the subject to climate initiatives more palatable to Middle America and less likely for Republicans to whack at.

After her press conference - where the Green New Deal's biggest champion, freshman Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, was noticeably absent - Pelosi refused to directly answer questions from reporters over whether her new bill is more in line with party position than the Green New Deal.

The political move is clear: Democratic leaders do not want the party's climate policy to be entirely defined by the Green New Deal, which Republicans are using as a wedge issue to help bolster their chances in 2020.

On Tuesday Republicans mocked the Green New Deal - a set of principles that would put the nation on a 100 percent-renewable-energy diet - by putting it up for a Senate vote in order to split Democrats and get as many on the record as possibly supporting the measure.

Rep. Ocasio-Cortez says proponents of the Green New Deal aren't afraid of having this high-profile fight for the public to see.

The Green New Deal is sponsored by only 13 Senate Democrats, including every presidential candidate in that chamber, so McConnell's political ploy bombed because he failed to get the rest of the party to truly weigh the merits of the measure.

"I agree with proponents of the Green New Deal that we need decisive action and ambitious goals to protect our planet for future generations," Maine Sen. Angus King, an independent who caucuses with Democrats, said in a statement Tuesday.

https://news.vice.com/en_us/article/8xypjz/chuck-and-nancy-want-you-to-stop-talking-so-much-about-the-green-new-deal

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