Editorial | Investor’s Business Daily
That the main political force behind this fiscally insane plan is Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the just-elected, extreme-far-left New York congresswoman, shows just how foolish it is.
Green New Deal:
Democrats will try to flex their new-found electoral muscle in Congress by
pushing for what has been described as the "largest expansion of
government in decades." It's called the Green New Deal, and it promises
to be a major economic disaster if it ever becomes American law.
Those who think the Green New Deal is just a political
ploy or a Democratic Party marketing gimmick for hipster millennials are in bad need of a
wakeup call. The Democrats' plans will deliver soaring federal spending, a near
doubling of U.S. taxes, declining standards of living, and even more debt on
top of the already-massive $21 trillion we've piled up.
As The Daily Caller's Michael Bastasch reports, "More than 40 Democratic lawmakers support the 'Green New
Deal' as part of a broad plan to fight global warming and
bring about what they see as 'economic, social and racial justice.' " No
doubt, more will sign on in the coming weeks.
The scary thing is, the public, which knows next to
nothing about the details of this plan, like it. A poll conducted by Yale's
Program on Climate Communication and George Mason University's Center foo
Climate Change Communication this month shows that 92% of Democrats and 64% of Republicans backed
the plan.
But calling it a Green New Deal is really
misnomer. It's really a starter package for turning our mostly
free-market economy socialist. And no, that's not hyperbole.
Socialism has destroyed Venezuela, as well as other countries, including Cuba and North Korea.
Green New Deal = Socialism
The GND starts with moving the energy grid to 100%
renewable energy, something that will take highly efficient fossil fuels and
replace them with highly inefficient "renewables" at a cost of about
$5.2 trillion over 20 years. But that's not all. Not by a long shot.
The plan also wants job guarantees for those who lose
their jobs due to the Green New Deal. That will be a lot of people. No estimate
on that, but its cost too could go into the trillions.
But those who push this plan also seek a guaranteed
minimum income and universal health care. Although those have nothing to do
with "green" anything, it merely reveals that the real goal isn't
"green" at all — it's socialism.
It turns out some have already researched the issue and
made estimates of the costs.
The Mercatus Center last July looked at socialist Sen. and Venezuela admirer Bernie Sanders'
"Medicare for All" plan, which the Democratic Party
seems on its way to supporting. It would cost just under $33 trillion over a
decade, in addition to what we already pay for health care. The sums
involved are staggering.
An Enormous Price Tag
Meanwhile, hedge fund manager and guru Ray Dalio
estimates that a guaranteed minimum income of just $12,000 a year would cost $3.8 trillion.
So let's do the basic math. Those two programs alone
would cost $7.1 trillion a year. That compares with total federal spending in
2018 of $4.2 trillion.
That means at current levels spending would have to
increase by 170%. So would taxes, by the way.
We wonder, are all those people who think a Green New
Deal is a really nifty idea understand that?
Speaking of taxes, one of the favorite ways to fund this
green socialist scheme is through a national carbon tax, which Democrats have
already introduced in Congress. The Congressional Budget Office estimated that
a $25 per ton carbon tax would be a $1.1 trillion per year tax increase.
"The carbon tax bill is a
massive and continually ratcheting national energy tax,"
reported the nonpartisan Americans for Tax Reform.
Not only would it be economically destabilizing and
create massive inefficiencies in our economy, costing us hundreds of billions
in output a year, but it also would expand the federal government's reach into
every private pocket book and every American business. We'd be Greece, without
the charming ancient ruins.
That the main political force behind this fiscally insane
plan is Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the just-elected, extreme-far-left New York congresswoman,
shows just how foolish it is. She hasn't served a single day in Congress, and
yet desperate Democrats have lined up to follow her lead. It only shows how
utterly bereft of common-sense the party has become. Once the party of the
middle-class and working Americans, it is now a party of academic elites, faux
revolutionaries and billionaires. It's completely out of touch with real people
and the real economy.
A 'Green Raw Deal'
We repeat: Don't be fooled. This has nothing whatsoever
to do with the environment, and everything to do with socialism. Ocasio-Cortaz
says the Green New Deal is about "social and racial justice." No it
isn't. It's a Green Raw Deal that will impoverish millions, destroy businesses
and jobs, and end individual rights as we now know them.
Simply put, the socialism at the heart of this "new
deal" amounts to centralized control of the economy and the people who
work in it. For the record, countries that adopt socialist policies have a
knack for suddenly finding themselves in an unexpected run of "bad
luck" that lasts decades. Venezuela, Zimbabwe, North Korea, Cuba all come
to mind.
Sure, we know it will go nowhere in the GOP-dominated
Senate. But what about after 2020? Americans better think long and hard before
taking this hard left turn. It's a road that leads to nowhere.
