Green New Deal Would Bankrupt American Middle Class
‘By one analysis, middle-class families could see their power bills jump by more than $300 a month under the “Green New Deal...” there certainly is one “green” thing about this sprawling proposal: The huge, unprecedented piles of middle-class families’ money that Democrats are itching to grab.’
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) made the following remarks on the Senate floor regarding the Green New Deal:
“Yesterday, the Senate confirmed one of President Trump’s well-qualified nominees to the federal bench, and advanced the nomination of another. With Allison Rushing’s nomination confirmed, we’ll vote later today on the nomination of Chad Readler and then turn to consideration of Eric Murphy to join him on the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals. Mr. Murphy is a graduate of Miami University and the University of Chicago School of Law, and now serves as the State Solicitor of Ohio. And he has held two prestigious clerkships on our federal courts, including for Justice Anthony Kennedy on the U.S. Supreme Court. So I hope my colleagues will join me advancing another wise choice for our nation’s judiciary.
“In recent months, the nation has watched the Democratic Party take a sharp and abrupt left turn toward socialism. A flawed ideology that has been rejected time and again across the world is now driving the marquee policy proposals of the new House Democrat majority. And nothing encapsulates this as clearly as the huge, self-inflicted national wound that Democrats are agitating for called the ‘Green New Deal.’ Let’s review a few of the greatest hits in this particular proposal. Democrats have decided every building in America needs to be either overhauled or replaced altogether. They’re putting homeowners and small business owners on alert: The all-knowing central planners here in the nation’s capital are raring to remodel the entire country.
“Up next: Ending all fossil fuel and nuclear energy production. Forget about coal and all the jobs it supports in my state of Kentucky and around the country. Forget about the oil and natural gas industry and all those jobs, too. The list goes on. And forget about nuclear, too -- proving that this proposal doesn’t even pretend to be a serious effort to reduce carbon emissions. It’s just a statement of what sounds trendy to Democrats in New York and San Francisco. Anyone seriously concerned about carbon would know that nuclear power generates a majority of America’s carbon-free electricity.
“You’d think the carbon police would be glad that, from 1995 to 2016, American nuclear power meant the emissions equivalent of keeping 3 billion cars off the road. But alas, these Democrats won’t let facts get in the way of what’s fashionable. Besides, why should America bother being a net exporter of energy when we could leave all that economic potential to competitors like China? Naturally, as background documents explained, this means eliminating all combustion engines. Cars, lawn mowers, commercial airliners -- everything must go. By the way, that backgrounder really helps clarify another goal behind all this. It’s providing ‘economic security’ even for those who are -- quote -- ‘unwilling to work.’
“All this and more can be ours -- for the low, low price of a staggering expansion of centralized government and -- wait for it -- upwards of 93 trillion dollars. $93 trillion is more than every dollar our federal government has spent in its entire history to date, combined. It’s more than the combined annual GDP of every nation on Earth. As our colleague Senator Blunt and the Policy Committee have pointed out, this amount of money could rebuild the entire interstate highway system every single year, just for the heck of it, for 250 years. And you’d still have a little left over.
“Or maybe Americans would rather have something nicer to drive on the roads we already have. For the comparatively cheap price of just $66 trillion, I am told the government could buy every American a Ferrari. But of course everyone would have to get their driving in before Democrats ban the internal combustion engine. To be clear, $93 trillion is just one number in one attempt to estimate the price tag on this fantasy novel. The proposal is so lacking in details and math that it’s almost impossible for analysts to even know where to begin trying to connect it to the real world.
“But let’s talk about where this money would come from. That’s always a question worth asking. If we spread that $93 trillion out over the ten years and over every American household, you get about $65,000 per household. $65,000, every year, for every household. The median income in this country is around $60,000. Like any good socialist plan, I’m sure we’d hear a lot about soaking the rich. We’d hear that wealthy Americans could pay for this whole thing if only they were sufficiently civic-minded.
“But, of course, that’s not even close to accurate. A huge share of the bill would land at the feet of the American middle class. There aren’t enough billionaires, to pay the trillions needed for this massive government plan. Even if Washington decided the IRS should grab every single cent of adjusted gross income above $1,000,000, it would only bring in a little over a tenth of what the ‘Green New Deal’ is estimated to cost annually. In fact, in order to break even on this proposal alone, the federal government would have to take 9 out of every ten dollars that every single American earns.
“And you’d better believe that families’ last dollar would need to go toward keeping the lights on. By one analysis, middle-class families could see their power bills jump by more than $300 a month under the ‘Green New Deal.’ So, that would take up the last dollar they had left. I know Senator Ernst and several of our colleagues will be speaking at greater length on this issue later today. And I’m sure each of them will point out that there certainly is one ‘green’ thing about this sprawling proposal: The huge, unprecedented piles of middle-class families’ money that Democrats are itching to grab.”
Related Issues: Middle Class, Green New Deal, Energy
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