Democrat admits Ocasio-Cortez' Green New Deal is 'fantasyland,' but says it's needed to 'shock' Americans

Fellow New York Democratic Congressman Tom Suozzi admitted that the policies in Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's Green New Deal could be described as "fantasyland," but said it was important nonetheless.

Suozzi was speaking to Brianna Keilar on CNN when he made the comments about the climate change legislation that the CNN anchor described as the "pie-in-the-sky" approach.

"There is a real problem and we all know it," Suozzi said of climate change. "We have to recognize that there's something dramatic where our Earth cannot respond as it historically has to all this human impact that's happening. It just can't take it anymore. So we need Democrats and Republicans to actually work together to solve this problem.

"Now the Green New Deal is a very very ambitious over the top idea to try to solve this problem but you really need something to shock people out of their torpor to say we have to do something different than what we've been doing," he added.

"And while some of the ideas seemed extraordinary, almost fantasyland," he continued, "we need to have that type of aggressive ambition to really address something that's been ignored for much too long."

Ocasio-Cortez has angrily denounced suggestions from members of her own party that her plan was unrealistic or would cost too much.

The Green New Deal was mocked widely after Ocasio-Cortez published a FAQ document on her website outlining some of her more audacious and extreme ideas in order to tackle climate change. It was later deleted from the website.

On Tuesday, the Republicans forced a vote on the Green New Deal resolution but Democrats called the vote a "sham" and refused to participate. As a result, the bill failed without a single vote in favor of continuing the legislative process.

Here are the comments from Rep. Suozzi:

Rep. Tom Suozzi on CNN Right Now with Brianna Keilar, 3/27/19www.youtube.com