Senate vote to expose fallacy of Green New Deal
Despite the political gridlock in Washington, the Democrats’ Green New Deal legislation is going to get a full and open hearing in the GOP-controlled Senate, along with a rare up-ordown vote. And the bill’s author, Sen. Ed Markey, wants Massachusetts to know …
That he’s mad as hell about it and he’s not gonna take it anymore!
“Don’t let Mitch McConnell fool you,” our junior senator tweeted when the news broke that his bill will get a Senate vote. “This is nothing but an attempt to sabotage the movement we are building. He wants to silence your voice so Republicans don’t have to explain why they are climate change deniers.”
Bringing the #GreenNewDeal to the Senate floor is a “Republican trick!” Markey tweeted.
Now, for those of us who, in between episodes of “Super Friends” and “Scooby-Doo,” paid attention to “SchoolHouse Rock,” Markey’s complaint sounds odd at best. How is letting Democrats like Markey and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (also a coaccording sponsor of the bill) discuss, debate and then vote on their own bill “silencing” anyone?
Letting Sen. Markey vote on his own Green New Deal resolution is “sabotage”? Really? I thought it was “basic civics.”
Ah, but Senate Majority Leader McConnell isn’t letting Democrats vote on their own crackpot plan. He’s making them.
I don’t blame Markey for not seeing this coming. Let’s face it: Markey isn’t anyone’s first pick on Senate Trivia Night. I’m not saying that Ed Markey isn’t the sharpest knife in the drawer.
I’m saying he’s a spoon. But he has figured out that the last thing Democrats need is to let their climatekookery cat out of the political bag.
If you’ve read the actual resolution Markey has submitted, you know that much of what you’ve heard on talk radio and Fox News isn’t actually in it. The resolution itself is vague and aspirational, talk of “goals” and “what is technologically possible.”
No, the insane stuff about bovine emissions and ending the airline industry was in Rep. Alexandria OcasioCortez’s talking points explaining how to make the aspirations a reality. In other words, AOC & Co. really do support making it illegal to own and drive your car — they’re just not dumb enough to put it in the bill.
Which explains why Markey is so outraged over getting a vote on his own legislation. He’s afraid you’ll find out what the Green New Deal actually means.
For example: Remember the reaction when Mayor Marty’s anti-carbon club (or whatever the heck it is) brought up the possibility of a $5 fee on every trip to downtown Boston? Well, that five bucks is nothing compared to the $2.9 trillion required to convert the U.S. to all-renewable energy. And that’s just the cost of making the electricity. Distributing it, converting the grid, etc., is hundreds of billions of dollars more.
If Bostonians won’t pay five bucks to save the Earth, how do you think they’ll respond to a $500-permonth electric bill hike?
Or Markey’s proposal for an environmental upgrade of every building in the country? Who wants to tell homeowners that the average cost of weatherizing, to one recent study, is nearly $5,000 per house? Liz Warren tells us all the time the average American doesn’t have $400 for an emergency. Where will Massachusetts families get five grand for high-tech windows?
AOC’s answer is that none of this is going to cost anyone anything because the government is just going to pay for it. And by “government,” she means taxpayers. Care to guess which state already pays the third-highest federal tax bill in the country? Bingo!
Where do Bay State liberals think the feds are going to find the trillions in spending that Markey’s proposing — Alabama and West Virginia?
People who understand math, or the basics of the economy, or energy policy, etc., those people know all this. But we’re not talking about those people.
We’re talking about Ed Markey.