MARKEY SEES RED
GOP moves to push Dems to the extreme left
U.S. Sen. Edward Markey is opposing a quick Senate vote on his own Green New Deal resolution, saying that would stifle debate — but political observers say he’s been played by the GOP, stumbling into a trap that could commit his party to an extreme agenda ahead of the 2020 election.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced Tuesday night that he wants to “give everybody an opportunity to go on record” — including the various 2020 presidential hopefuls among Senate Democrats — about the hard-left climate proposals outlined in the nonbinding resolution.
Markey tweeted, “By rushing a vote on the #GreenNewDeal resolution, Republicans want to avoid a true national debate & kill our efforts to organize. We’re having the first national conversation on climate change in a decade. We can’t let Republicans sabotage it.”
Markey’s office said Wednesday a quick Senate vote would skip the committee process, which includes public hearings and expert testimony, and squelch a “movement.”
The plan calls for massive public spending and regulation to sharply curtail the use of fossil fuels and production of carbon dioxide by 2030.
Republicans have panned it as a move toward socialism that could grind the economy to a halt — claiming it would mean the ban of air travel and cattle herds.
McConnell’s call for a vote would pressure 2020 candidates such as Elizabeth Warren and Kamala Harris to publicly commit to the plan.
“Everyone should have seen this coming. They kind of walked into it,” Democratic strategist Matt Bennett said. “It’s a game that McConnell’s playing. This is what you do to your political opponents — you make them live with the ideological edge of the party.”
GOP political consultant Ron Bonjean said, “It’s a political gift to the Republican Party because they can use it to brand Democrats, including 2020 candidates who say they’ll vote for it. It’s a policy pinata that Republicans can continue to hit time and time again.”
Meanwhile, Twitter lit up with cutting mockery, as tweeters asked why Markey was opposing a vote on his own resolution. @DennyLoggins tweeted, “But I heard from @AOC that we only have 12 years left before we’re all dead. Why are you for delaying.”
Markey paired with lightning rod U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez last week on the nonbinding resolution, in a move that critics said was aimed at thwarting the kind of left-flank re-election challenge in 2020 that took out Michael Capuano in 2018.