Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez unveils Green New Deal framework to control Americans' lives

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., deserves credit — she's a socialist, she went to Congress with an agenda, and she is using every opportunity available to her to advance that agenda.

Working together with Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., Ocasio-Cortez has released a framework for a Green New Deal, to be introduced in Congress as a nonbinding House resolution. The document outlines the broad goals for a Democratic legislative agenda to fight climate change. As a nonbinding resolution, its passage in the House would not make law, but it would declare Congress' intent to meet these goals with future legislative action.

Ocasio-Cortez wants to achieve "net-zero greenhouse gas emissions" and will use a "10-year national mobilization" to do it. To call the policies she is proposing to meet those goals drastic would be a gross understatement. In this document is nothing short of a socialist program to vastly expand government power well beyond the constraints of the Constitution, remake the American economy by force, send the national debt completely out of sight, and invade the private lives of every American to do it all in just ten years. That's not an exaggeration. Ocasio-Cortez's own FAQ calls this plan a "massive transformation of our society" that will "mobilize every aspect of American society at a scale not seen since World War 2 to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions." She's referring to FDR's wartime command economy, where civilian goods were not produced because of government prohibitions, the top income tax rate was 81 percent, ordinary nondurable goods were rationed, and the government exercised vast power over businesses and wages and restricted the economic life of all Americans.

Reviewing some lowlights of her plan shows that she is in fact asking for a command economy to fight climate change. The Green New Deal would attempt to:

• Meet "100 percent of the power demand in the Unite States through clean, renewable, and zero-emission energy sources." That means massive subsidies, a Washington D.C.-directed overhaul of the American electric grid, and the loss of every job on oil rigs, in coal mines, and in fracking in the country.
• Upgrade "all existing buildings" in the United States and building new buildings to achieve maximal energy efficiency. Folks, "all existing buildings" means the government would remodel your house to be "energy efficient."
• Overhaul "transportation systems in the United States to eliminate pollution and greenhouse gas emissions." This includes investing in "zero-emission vehicle infrastructure and manufacturing," public transportation, and boondoggles like "high speed rail." She actually told NPR her proposal is to expand high-speed rail to a "scale where air travel stops becoming necessary." Private cars will need to be electric cars. And what happens if you own a private boat? No more gas-powered engines? Explain that to every sports fisherman in America. And all of this in just 10 years!

And then we get to the stuff that's not directly climate-related:

• "A Green New Deal must be developed through transparent and inclusive consultation, collaboration, and partnership with frontline and vulnerable communities, labor unions, worker cooperatives, civil society groups, academia, and businesses." So the whole parade of left-wing special interest groups needs to be involved.
• The Green New Deal will ensure the "public receives appropriate ownership stakes and returns on investment" through "community grants, public banks, and other public financing." This is Ocasio-Cortez telling you the government will pay for all of this, which means higher taxes. Much higher.
• Provide "resources, training, and high-quality education, including higher education, to all people of the United States with a focus on frontline and vulnerable communities." She means free college.
• Ensure "that the Green New Deal mobilization creates high-quality union jobs that pay prevailing wages ... and guarantees wage and benefit parity for workers." That's a guaranteed jobs program with the following benefits: "a family-sustaining wage, adequate family and medical leave, paid vacations, and retirement security."
• A Green New Deal will "enact and enforc[e] trade rules, procurement standards, and border adjustments with strong labor and environmental protections" to "stop the transfer of jobs and pollution overseas" and "grow domestic manufacturing in the United States." This means tariffs and protectionist trade barriers.
• And finally, the government must provide "high-quality health care, affordable housing, economic security, and access to clean water, clean air, healthy and affordable food, and nature." Straight-up socialism.

One thing I couldn't find anywhere in this document is a statement on how these policies will actually counter or negate climate change. That's because this is not about stopping climate change. Government policies in one country, even a country as large and powerful as the United States, cannot change the planet's climate. Any notion of "fighting" climate change is purely symbolic — a feel-good excuse for socialists like Ocasio-Cortez to seize control of American economic activity, redistribute wealth, punish perceived privileged classes, and rigidly control what everybody can buy and how much money they have to buy it.

And what happens when the Constitution is trampled on and the nation is "mobilized"? Americans will be unfree and impoverished.

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