Thanks to policies laid out by President Trump and Republicans in Congress, the American economy is booming.
We reformed the tax code so that families can keep more of their own hard-earned money, and instituted smart regulations so that businesses have the right guardrails to grow and hire more workers.
As a result, wages are up, and unemployment is down. Right now, in fact, there are a million more job openings in the United States than there are unemployed Americans.
OCASIO-CORTEZ CLAIMS CLIMATE CHANGE IS DRIVING MIGRANT CRISIS
The American Dream is back within reach of millions of families. My wife, Rachel, and I have eight children, and we have never been so excited for their future.
But we’re not getting tired of all this winning. We’re just getting started.
Alarmingly, leftist ideologues in the Democratic Party want to stop America’s momentum in its tracks. For decades, socialists in America have rejected the notion that America is the land of freedom, opportunity, and upward mobility.
Instead, they view our way of life as the problem.
Take their support for the so-called “Green New Deal.” Supporters of the Green New Deal desire to rig the game in their favor by radically overhauling our economy, which would make it harder for families to save money and live the American Dream. They say this is all in the name of addressing climate change.
The plan’s “Frequently Asked Questions” document lays out their goals:
“Yes, we are calling for a full transition off fossil fuels and zero greenhouse gases. Anyone who has read the resolution sees that we spell this out through a plan that calls for eliminating greenhouse gas emissions from every sector of the economy. Simply banning fossil fuels immediately won’t build the new economy to replace it – this is the plan to build that new economy and spells out how to do it technically.
We do this through a huge mobilization to create a renewable energy economy as fast as possible. We set a goal to get to net-zero, rather than zero emissions, in 10 years because we aren’t sure that we’ll be able to fully get rid of farting cows and airplanes that fast, but we think we can ramp up renewable manufacturing and power production, retrofit every building in America, build the smart grid, overhaul transportation and agriculture, plant lots of trees and restore our ecosystem to get to net-zero.”
So, they want to ban fossil fuels, get rid of all cows in America, take away your freedom to travel by air, and require your home, church, place of work, children’s school – everywhere – to be “retro-fitted” to eliminate carbon emissions.
And what happens if we don’t? According to the Green New Deal’s author, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, “The world is going to end in 12 years if we don’t address climate change.”
Because she claims the world is going to end, she argues that her critics are wrong to ask, “how are we gonna pay for it?”
Well, Ocasio-Cortez, rich liberals in places like San Francisco or New York may be able to afford the massive new set of regulations that the Green New Deal requires, but hardworking families in northern Wisconsin – and in communities around America – will not be able to afford these radical ideas.
The American Action Forum, a non-partisan think tank, has calculated that the Green New Deal will cost up to $93 trillion in only the first 10 years.
Despite the Green New Deal’s claim that this plan will help the poor, it is the poorest Americans who will suffer the most from this plan.
Poor and working-class Americans would face higher energy costs, higher food costs, and higher housing costs.
On two occasions, I have raised awareness of the plan’s damaging consequences in legislative discussion in the House Financial Services Committee. By inserting language of the Green New Deal into housing legislation, I gave Democrats, including several of the Green New Deal’s original supporters, the opportunity to vote in support of their plan to overhaul our economy.
Any reasonable person would think they would vote for their own proposal, right?
If the world were truly going to end in 12 years, they would have a sense of urgency and immediately vote for it any chance they could. They would also change the way they live before asking Americans to change how they live. For instance, why does Sen. Bernie Sanders often take private jets? Why does Rep. Ocasio-Cortez not take the train to Washington from New York? Why didn’t she take the subway during her campaign, which was less than a football field away from her office?
Their actions and their votes show that this radical economic upheaval is not about saving the world’s climate.
Supporters of the Green New Deal in the House voted against their own proposal twice. Every single Democrat on the Committee voted against the plan. And the Green New Deal’s author, Ocasio-Cortez, skipped the vote entirely.
In the Senate, all six Senators vying for the Democrat nomination for president have signed their names to the plan. However, those same six Senators ducked a vote on the Green New Deal. That’s right, even avowed socialist Bernie Sanders did not vote in favor of it.
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They have chosen to vote against or vote present for their own proposal they say we need so dearly because these socialists don’t want you to see their full hand too quickly. Ultimately, they want to control the way you live, control what you eat, where you live, and how you travel. They want to institute a socialist ideology that the far-left has been trying to force upon the American people for over a century.
We must stand against radical ideas like the Green New Deal, and continue to work to find commonsense solutions that expand freedom and opportunity for the American people. It is my hope that these far-left Democrats will join us in the effort to help make a more prosperous America for the next generation – and yes, one that will live and work in our nation more than 12 years from now.
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