When Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the latest media darling who’s been in Congress for less than three months, came forward with her “Green New Deal” to save the world from, you know, like, those horrible humans (and farting cows), Democrats in the House crowed.
And Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell did, too. He quickly announced that as Senate Majority Leader — a post that lets you schedule what lawmakers in the chamber will vote on — he’d quickly put the legislation on the agenda.
“I could not be more glad that the American people will have the opportunity to learn precisely where each one of their senators stand on the ‘Green New Deal,'” McConnell wrote Monday on Twitter. “A radical, top-down, socialist makeover of the entire U.S. economy.”
The Ocasio-Cortez plan calls for America to get rid of all gas-powered cars — in 10 years, mind you, — and, oh, airplanes, too. The bill also plans to address the serious problem of farting cows (seriously), but we’ve never been exactly sure how that would work. Corks? We just don’t know.
While McConnell was happy to put the bill to vote, AOC didn’t want that, not one bit. “The GOP’s whole game of wasting votes in Congress to target others ‘on the record,’ for leg they have no intent to pass, is a disgrace. Stop wasting the American peoples’ time + learn to govern,” she wrote on Twitter on Saturday. “Our jobs aren’t for campaigning, & that’s exactly what these bluff-votes are for.”
The GOP’s whole game of wasting votes in Congress to target others “on the record”, for leg they have no intent to pass, is a disgrace.
Stop wasting the American peoples’ time + learn to govern. Our jobs aren’t for campaigning, & that’s exactly what these bluff-votes are for. https://t.co/ELzpQhlezo
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) March 23, 2019
Alas, the legislation was voted on Tuesday and the tally was a bit, how do you say, one sided. The final outcome was 57 opposed, 0 for. That’s right, zero. Not a single Democratic senator bothered to support the measure, instead voting “present.” In fact, the clerk didn’t even read the names of the 43 Democratic senators, as is normal procedure, so intent were they not to have any record whatsoever of the dismal outcome.
But Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said Democrats had actually won, despite the GOP “stunt” by McConnell.
“All he’s accomplished is that it’s becoming clearer and clearer to the American people that the Republican Party is way behind the times on clean energy and that Democrats are the party willing to take action,” Schumer told reporters on Tuesday.
According to an outline of the deal, the New York Democratic socialist and fellow bill sponsor Rep. Edward Markey (D-MA) “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.”
The conservative American Action Forum said the program would actually cost $93 trillion over 10 years.
