by Chris White
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and his Republican colleagues torpedoed the activist-backed Green New Deal Tuesday as Democrats called the vote a dog-and-pony show.
Republicans defeated the proposal 57 to 0 as Democratic lawmakers derided the vote as a political gesture meant to rile up conservatives ahead of an election year. McConnell called the GND Tuesday morning a socialistic ploy designed to kill the American economy and the “only sources of energy that working-class and middle-class families can actually afford.”
Only three Democrats voted against the resolution. Democratic Sens. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, Joe Manchin of West Virginia, and Doug Jones of Alabama all voted no. All of their fellow Democratic colleagues voted present.
The resolution, which was introduced in February by New York Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, calls for “10-year national mobilizations” toward a series of goals aimed at fighting global warming. A separate fact sheet claims the plan would “mobilize every aspect of American society on a scale not seen since World War 2.”
Recent reports suggest the GND, which seeks to phase out fossil fuel usage within 12 years, could costs tens of trillions of dollars. Americans could be forced to pay up to $93 trillion to implement the proposal over a decade, the conservative-leaning American Action Forum (AAF) noted in a study in February. Critics claim that number is exaggerated as the proposal is still in the preliminary stages.
House Democrats along with most the Democratic Party’s quickly-expanding 2020 presidential field have voiced support for the measure. Democratic Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Cory Booker of New Jersey, who have both announced their bids for the 2020 nomination, for instance, have signed on as Senate co-sponsors of the proposal.
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Chris White is a reporter for the Daily Caller News Foundation. Follow Chris on Facebook and Twitter.
Background Photo “Senate Green New Deal Vote” by CSPAN.
