The Senate turned away from the Green New Deal on Tuesday as both parties shutdown the far-left plan to spend $93 trillion to ban cows, airplanes, and more — and Democrats are very, very mad.
Republicans in the GOP-controlled Senate forced the vote as they seek to turn the Green New Deal into a wedge issue in the 2020 elections. Angry Democrats called the GOP’s move to actually vote on their bill a “sham” and said it carries its own political risk by mocking an issue — climate change — that Americans care deeply about.
But not a single Democrat dared vote in favor of the bill sponsored by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y.
Senators voted 57-0 against a procedural motion to take up the nonbinding resolution.
In response, Sen. Mitch McConnell shared the following 102 second video —
Three Democrats and independent Sen. Angus King of Maine, who caucuses with Democrats, joined all 53 Senate Republicans in opposing the climate plan. Forty-three Democrats voted “present” but no one voted “Aye.”
The Green New Deal calls for virtual elimination by 2030 of greenhouse gas emissions, including methane-based cow farts.
The plan has broad support among Democratic activists, and all six of the 2020 presidential contenders serving in the Senate have signed on as co-sponsors, putting it at the forefront of the party’s sprawling primary race.
However, Democratic presidential candidate John Hickenlooper said Tuesday he opposes the Green New Deal. The former Colorado governor said the proposal sets “unachievable goals” and shuns the private sector.
Republicans say the plan would devastate the economy and lead to insane tax increases. They call it more evidence of the creep of “socialism” in the Democratic Party, along with “Medicare for All” and the election of literal socialists like Ocasio-Cortez.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky scheduled Tuesday’s vote, saying it would force Democrats to take a stand on a plan that “might sound like a neat idea in places like San Francisco or New York” but would result in communities across the country being “absolutely crushed.”
By “basically outlawing the only sources of energy that working-class and middle-class families can actually afford,” the Green New Deal would “kill off entire domestic industries” and eliminate millions of jobs, McConnell said. The plan would lead to a spike in household electric bills of more than $300 a month, he said.
President Donald Trump also weighed in against the plan, which the White House called “job crushing.” At a luncheon with Senate Republicans, Trump urged lawmakers to keep the Green New Deal alive as an issue to use against Democrats.
“He said it’s important to run against,” said Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D. Trump likes the way the Green New Deal makes Democrats “uncomfortable,” said Sen. John Kennedy, R-La.
Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, called the Green New Deal “ridiculous” and displayed pictures of dinosaurs, cartoon characters and babies as he derided the plan. He said he was treating it “with the seriousness it deserves.”
One poster Lee displayed depicted President Ronald Reagan shooting a machine gun while riding a dinosaur that was holding a U.S. flag. The outlandish image was intended to illustrate the U.S. winning the Cold War, Lee said, but its fictional nature served a purpose: “Because this image has as much to do with overcoming communism in the 20th century as the Green New Deal has to do with overcoming climate change in the 21st,” he said.
Lee’s remarks enraged Democrats.
“Climate change is not a joke!” said Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., the resolution’s lead Senate author. Markey didn’t vote for his own bill, but said “mocking it is shameful.”
Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., said Democrats were being hypocritical by refusing to vote for their own plan. “I’ve never seen a bill sponsored by a dozen people who don’t want to vote on it,” he said.
Of course, the Green New Deal goes far beyond energy to urge national health care coverage and job guarantees, high-quality education and affordable housing.
It demands the “upgrading all existing buildings in the United States” to be energy-efficient. Democrats have not specified a price tag, but estimates say it would cost $93 trillion — more than four times what the entire U.S. economy produces annually.
The Associated Press contributed to this article