Vice President Kamala Harris was one of the first senators who openly supported Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s (D-NY) Green New Deal — which, a memo noted, aimed to provide economic security to those “unwilling” to work.
In February 2019, Harris formally announced that she was proud to cosponsor Rep. Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Ed Markey’s (D-MA) Green New Deal:
I’m proud to co-sponsor @AOC and @EdMarkey‘s Green New Deal. We must aggressively tackle climate change which poses an existential threat to our nation.
— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) February 7, 2019
What is particularly notable about this is that Harris, who ran for president that year, appeared to be one of the first Democrat contenders to endorse Ocasio-Cortez’s specific legislation, rather than the mere ideals of the Green New Deal alone.
That specific measure — pushed by Ocasio-Cortez and Markey — asserts that “human activity is the dominant cause of observed climate change over the past century,” also deeming climate change itself a “direct threat” to national security.
As Breitbart News reported at the time, the proposal was actually nothing more than a far-left socialist wishlist, where the lawmakers hoped to “counteract systemic injustices”:
It calls for moving the U.S. to 100% renewable energy within ten years — while at the same time creating a government-guaranteed job for every American. The bill proposes phasing out air travel, “upgrading all existing buildings in the United States,” and other radical proposals — without any plan to pay for the “transformation” of the entire American economy.
The proposal would require the federal government to ignore deficits and, critics note, to print new money. And according to talking points Ocasio-Cortez is distributing, the Green New Deal will also provide “[e]conomic security for all who are unable or unwilling to work” [emphasis added].
While the legislation itself did not contain that line, according to the taking points distributed at the time, leftists hoped to build on the original New Deal by guaranteeing a variety of freebies, including “a job with a family-sustaining wage, family and medical leave, vacations, and retirement security,” a “high-quality education, including higher education and trade schools, and, perhaps most bizarrely, “economic security for all who are unable or unwilling to work [emphasis added].
This same memo claimed that the Green New Deal had momentum, with backing from 92 percent of Democrats. It then touted Harris as one of its ardent supporters.
The memo read, “Nearly every major Democratic Presidential contender say they back the Green New deal including: Elizabeth Warren, Cory Booker, Kamala Harris, Jeff Merkeley, Julian Castro, Kirsten Gillibrand, Bernie Sanders, Tulsi Gabbard, and Jay Inslee” [emphasis added].
The memo also added that another goal of the Green New Deal for the next ten years was promoting “justice and equity by stopping current, preventing future, and repairing historic oppression of frontline and vulnerable communities.”
We know that Harris supports those endeavors, as she has openly touted the importance of “equity” versus equality just days ahead of the 2020 presidential election, openly promoting socialism. Further, Harris is a “dues-paying member” of Third Baptist Church of San Francisco, and her pastor, Rev. Amos Brown, is a major voice for promoting reparations, even serving as a vice chair of California’s Reparations Task Force. Harris has also stated publicly that she would support “some type” of reparations.
The Green New Deal memo also said it was “calling for a full transition off fossil fuels and zero greenhouse gases,” explaining that it had a goal to get to net-zero rather than zero emissions, in ten years because “we aren’t sure that we’ll be able to fully get rid of farting cows and airplanes that fast.”
That aside, it remains unclear if Harris specifically agrees with the proposal that there should be guaranteed economic security for those unwilling to work, but she has continued to champion the Green New Deal while warning of what she describes as the “existential threat” of climate change. In July 2019, Harris proclaimed that that U.S. “must have and adopt a Green New Deal,” promising to reenter the country into the Paris Agreement “on day one as president.”
FLASHBACK — Trump: Melania Doesn’t Like Me Talking Like This, but Green New Deal Is “Bullshit”
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