Democratic New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez ripped one of her critics Thursday for suggesting the Green New Deal would cost Americans a fortune and require the government to confiscate every penny from billionaire and multimillionaires.
Ocasio-Cortez scolded conservative columnist Jonah Goldberg Thursday for saying in a tweet that taking every dollar from the likes of Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos and others would not “cover a fraction of your Green New Deal fantasy.”
“Totally get it if you’ve never bothered to read the legislation you’re commenting so authoritatively on,” Ocasio-Cortez wrote in reply before noting that the GND is a “non-binding resolution of values” and “costs us $0 if passed.” (RELATED: Report: Green New Deal Will Impose A $75,000 Per Year Cost On Swing-State Households)
Hey there! Totally get it if you’ve never bothered to read the legislation you’re commenting so authoritatively on.
The Green New Deal is a non-binding resolution of values. It does not have a price tag or CBO score and costs us $0 if passed.
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) May 14, 2020
Ocasio-Cortez’s signature legislation calls for several progressive proposals, including moving the United States off of fossil fuels within a decade, providing universal health care, basic income programs and job guarantees, as well as a slew of other ambitious plans. The GND would cost $0 if it remained a non-binding resolution and was not coupled with legislation satisfying the deal’s agenda.
Several reports have determined that legislation actually enacting the GND would be an expensive boondoggle. The GND would cost households an average of between $74,287 and $76,683 in Colorado, Michigan and Pennsylvania, a February report from the Competitive Enterprise Institute noted.
Activists rally in support of the “Green New Deal” outside of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s office (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
CEI, a conservative-leaning think tank, incorporated the costs of electricity production within the first year after Ocasio-Cortez’s deal’s implementation and the costs of a one-time upgrade to buildings and vehicles. They also determined how the plan’s mandate would increase the cost of logistics in a modern American economy.
Other reports have reached similar conclusions.
Right-leaning group American Action Forum (AAF) made a similar forecast in a 2019 report, suggesting the GND would cost $93 trillion over ten years. All told, that amounts to $36,100 to $65,300 per American household per year to meet the lofty proposal’s goals, AAF reported in February 2019.
Republicans in the Senate eventually torpedoed the legislation in March 2019 as Democrats called the vote a dog-and-pony show. The GOP defeated the proposal 57-0; Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell called the bill a socialistic ploy designed to kill the economy.
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