by Michael Bastasch
New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez seemed to take a victory lap on the Green New Deal, claiming her effort proved Republicans’ “climate denial is now a losing position.”
“We chose to go on the climate offense with the #GreenNewDeal,” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted Thursday night. “As a result, climate denial is now a losing position + we got GOP (incl #WheresMitch!) to finally admit that climate change is real + man-made.”
We chose to go on the climate offense with the #GreenNewDeal.
As a result, climate denial is now a losing position + we got GOP (incl #WheresMitch!) to finally admit that climate change is real + man-made.
Now it’s time to go after predatory lending.
Whose side is the GOP on? https://t.co/1nI4UQnEVB
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) May 10, 2019
Ocasio-Cortez and Massachusetts Sen. Ed Markey, both Democrats, introduced the Green New Deal resolution in February, which calls for a complete societal transformation to fight global warming.
While many Democratic presidential candidates and lawmakers endorsed the bill, moderate Democrats were less enthusiastic about the proposal. Democratic leadership largely sidestepped the matter, moving forward with alternative
In fact, not a single Senate Democrat voted for the Green New Deal when it was brought to the floor in March. On the House side, Speaker Nancy Pelosi has not brought the Green New Deal to the floor, nor have any hearings been held.
Ocasio-Cortez claimed that her Green New Deal “offensive” made “climate denial” a “losing position.” However, new polling shows that support for the Green New Deal decreased among voting groups over the last year.
A new Yale and George Mason University poll found that “the Green New Deal had become much more politically polarized” by April 2019. Support among moderate Democrats fell from 90 to 88 percent from April 2018 to April 2019, the poll found.
The poll found “support among Republicans dropped dramatically (-20 percentage points), including among conservative Republicans (-25 points) and liberal/moderate Republicans (-11 points).”
The more Republicans heard about the Green New Deal, the less likely they were to support the plan, pollsters wrote in their summary of results released Wednesday.
Likewise, Democratic presidential frontrunner Joe Biden has not endorsed the Green New Deal. Biden is seeking a “middle ground” when it comes to climate change policies, sources told Reuters. The Green New Deal is also opposed by labor unions.
Ocasio-Cortez, however, still plans on campaigning to make the Green New Deal a top priority in the 2020 elections and is slated to attend a Washington, D.C., rally with an environmental group created to rally young voters around climate change.
“Now it’s time to go after predatory lending,” the freshman Democrat tweeted. “Whose side is the GOP on?”
Ocasio-Cortez joined Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who’s seeking the Democratic presidential nomination, in proposing legislation to cap credit card interest rates.
– – –
Michael Bastasch is a reporter for the Daily Caller News Foundation. Follow Michael on Twitter.
Photo “Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez” by Senate Democrats. CC BY 2.0
_(46105848855).jpg){kind=link}