GROWING PAINS: What Green New Deal?

“What Green New Deal?” – Democrats, as of today.

According to The Hill, Democrats are dying to “move on” from the Green New Deal after several embarrassing months capped by the proposal receiving ZERO votes on the Senate floor this week.

Even the far-left Sunrise Movement, an advocacy group that spearheaded the proposal, is trying to rewrite history, saying, “It was never created with the intention of passing,” despite organizing“9 massive tour stops and over 100 town halls all across America” to “bring the promise of the Green New Deal into reality.”

This comically bad spin is a tacit admission that the American people rejected everything from the disastrous rollout to the $93 trillion price tag of this radical proposal.

“Democrats may be done talking about the Green New Deal, but we aren’t,” said Zach Hunter, Congressional Leadership Fund VP.

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Democrats to move on from Green New Deal

The Hill

By Miranda Green

3/28/2019

Democrats are putting the Green New Deal in the rearview mirror, but they’re not abandoning climate change legislation.

Supporters of the progressive measure are shifting their sights away from passing a comprehensive plan to create green jobs and pursue 100 percent renewable energy by 2030. They are instead looking at multiple bills in hopes of advancing elements of the broader initiative.

The change comes after a heated few months where Republicans battered the idea of the Green New Deal, damaging a brand initially promoted by freshman Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.).

The Senate on Tuesday blocked legislation to advance the Green New Deal resolution on a procedural vote, with most Democrats voting present. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) set up the vote to test the Democratic Party’s unity over climate change, knowing many Senate Democrats didn’t want to publicly back the resolution’s ambitious goals.

Now, various supporters of the climate change measure, including Ocasio-Cortez, are focusing on new, smaller bills in an effort to get back on the offensive on climate change heading into 2020.

Asked what the next steps are for the Green New Deal, Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) on Tuesday said the onus is on the Democratic-controlled House to take action.

“We’re now in the process where the hearings have started on the House side,” said Markey, who introduced the Green New Deal resolution in the Senate last month. “Committee after committee have had the first hearings that haven’t been held for eight years. And ideas and legislation will start emanating from committee after committee looking specifically at what has to happen.”

Markey voted present during Tuesday’s procedural vote in the Senate.

Advocacy groups that previously gave a full-throated defense of the Green New Deal are also scaling back their push for action on the resolution. Their calls for a House floor vote on the Green New Deal are nonexistent.

“Right now, our ask for members of the House and Senate is to co-sponsor the Green New Deal. With a climate change denier in the White House, we don’t anticipate this or any other legislation we support being signed into law in the next 21 months,” said Josh Nelson, co-director of Credo Action, a progressive group that has backed the resolution from its early days.

The Sunrise Movement, a youth activist organization that rose to prominence after holding a sit-in at Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) congressional office demanding attention for climate change, downplayed the Green New Deal’s prospects in this Congress.

“It was never created with the intention of passing,” co-founder Varshini Prakash told reporters Tuesday.

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Read the full piece HERE.