Green New Deal - Wasted Time
Congress has been wasting time with the Green New Deal. The Green New Deal has been introduced as House Resolution 109 by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and as Senate Resolution 59 by Senator Ed Markey. Resolutions, whether they are passed in the House of Representatives, the Senate or both, have no bearing on public policy. They will not result in a new law nor will they allocate funding to work on a specific problem. Resolutions are simply the House or Senate saying "we think this would be a good idea". There could be Resolutions passed saying the sky should be green, but the Resolutions wont make the sky green or generate any effort to make the sky green.
The waste of time continues. Senator Mitch McConnell introduced Senate Joint Resolution 8 which is the same bill introduced in H.R. 109 and S.R. 59. Senator McConnell even put this to a vote for it to proceed through the process. The vote failed 0-57 with all Republican Senators voting against it with four Democratic or Independent Senators. The majority of the Democratic Senators simply voted "Present" and not taking a stand on the measure.
This was a pure political move by Senator McConnell. The Green New Deal will fundamentally alter our nation from the freedom of the federation that we enjoy to something much closer to a socialist government. Senator McConnell simply wanted to get it on record for us the voters who really supported the Green New Deal so we could have the knowledge to use in the next election. Not a single Senator voted to support the Green New Deal.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who sponsored H.R. 109, encouraged the Democratic Senators to vote "Present" during the Senate vote. Senator Markey, sponsor of S.R.59, voted "Present", not taking a stand. Why would people not support a vote on a bill with the exact contents of bills they have already sponsored? They are wasting their time.
Many prominent Democratic Senators who have previously supported the Green New Deal simply voted "Present" on McConnell's vote:
- Kory Booker, New Jersey
- Kirstin Gillibrand, New York
- Kamala Harris, California
- Amy Klobuchar, Minnesota
- Jeff Merkley, Oregon
- Bernie Sanders, Vermont
- Elizabeth Warren, Massachusetts
You may recognize most of these as being Presidential candidates. On the campaign trail they are saying they are for the Green New Deal but when it comes time to vote "Yea" or "Nay", they are simply "Present". They will tell you they voted "Present" in response to a political "stunt" by Senator McConnell, what they did was pass on an opportunity to support a cause they supposedly believe in. One has to wonder if they are lying to us on the campaign trail or on the vote. Either way they are still wasting their time.
Their were four non-Republican Senators that stood against the Democratic Party and voted against the Green New Deal. These four Senators are Doug Jones (D-Alabama), Joe Manchin (D-West Virginia), Kyrsten Sinema (D-Arizona) and Angus King (I-Maine). You can watch for a backlash from the Democratic Party against these four Senators who put the will of their constituents ahead of the will of the party.
After several months of wasted time, according to the Hill, Democrats are moving on from the Green New Deal. It's about time. This has been nothing but time wasted when our Congress could have been working on things we need. Time could have been spent on generating new jobs, lowering pharmaceutical costs, drug use or any number of things that need attention. Instead, it was wasted time.