One of the Republican Party's rising stars says if Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's Green New Deal is so good then New York City should try it out
- Republican Rep. Dan Crenshaw mused that Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez should try the Green New Deal in New York City first if it is such a great idea.
- The Senate voted down the non-binding Green New Deal on Tuesday.
WASHINGTON — Republican Rep. Dan Crenshaw of Texas floated the idea that New York City should attempt its own "Green New Deal" before the rest of the United States if lawmakers like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez are so passionate about it.
While participating on a panel about "new socialism" at the National Review Institute's Ideas Summit on Thursday, Crenshaw called the Green New Deal, which proposes sweeping transformations of the US economy in order to combat global climate change, an "elitist" proposal.
"The Green New Deal is for elitists who live in their high rises in New York City and see a dirty world around them because they’re in New York City," Crenshaw said. "I said New York City can pass a Green New Deal... Why not try it? Why not try it?"
The Green New Deal has been a heavily debated topic since Ocasio-Cortez and a handful of other Democrats proposed it. Republicans have panned the proposal as detrimental to the US economy and job market, while Democrats have praised it as an overarching theme about taking the threat of climate change more seriously.
The Green New Deal, like Ocasio-Cortez herself, has become the subject of frequent political messaging from Republicans, who see it as a vital economic issue heading into the 2020 elections.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell brought the non-binding Green New Deal to the floor for a vote on Tuesday. The resolution failed miserably, as all but four Democrats stood in unison to vote "present" instead of for the proposal.
Democrats characterized the vote as a political stunt, while Republicans likened their choice not to vote for it as cowardice.
But the subject is unlikely to go away, as architects of the Green New Deal have vowed to keep the debate going and many Democratic presidential candidates have made combatting climate change a central tenet of their campaign platforms.
Read more: A GOP senator brought a giant picture of Ronald Reagan riding a dinosaur onto the Senate floor to argue against Democrats' Green New Deal
During a speech on the Senate floor Thursday, McConnell suggested there was more to come because Democrats "want to march the entire country toward extreme environmentalist goals that even President Obama’s former Secretary of Energy has dismissed as impossible."
"This is what the Democratic Party of 2019 has decided to become. Remember, their last presidential nominee bragged after her loss that at least she’d won all the places in America that are 'optimistic, diverse, dynamic, [and] moving forward,'" he added. "We can fill in the blanks and see how they view all the other places that millions of Americans call home. Those places that just aren’t enlightened enough to vote for Democrats."
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