Who cares what the Green New Deal costs? We’re talking about saving the planet for our children, and our children’s children!
Or so says MSNBC’s Ali Velshi, whose weekday show is billed as a straight news program.
The cable host sought this week to dismiss concerns about the cost of the “green” resolution introduced by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., in an interview with one of the proposal’s chief architects, New Consensus Policy Director Rhiana Gunn-Wright. There is no official estimate for what the Green New Deal might cost because it’s just a non-binding resolution at this point. But unofficial assessments put the price tag at anywhere between $66 trillion and $94 trillion in its first ten years.
But what do these critics know, an incredulous Velshi asked as he invited Gunn-Wright to dismiss those who have argued the resolution she helped craft is prohibitively expensive.
“Well, my answer to that is that we are really early in the process,” she responded. “The resolution itself says that the Green New Deal has to be developed by democratic and participatory processes, so my answer to that is just, ‘Hold on.’ There will be policy and policy details coming that can be scored and we can have this conversation later. Right now the focus really needs to be on what are the policies that are going to allow us to decarbonize and also reduce iniquity and inequality in our economy.”
Velshi continued, joining the effort to downplay concerns about the possible costs of the Green New Deal.
“I hate estimates that don’t have anything on the benefits side of the equation including the fact that maybe we’ll save Planet Earth for our children or grandchildren and as Mastercard would say, that’s ‘priceless,'” the host said.
Sigh. The Democratic Party thanks you for your tireless service, prime time cable news guy.
Velshi also said: “But we live in a world where people do that math, right? So what do we do? Because I want to be able to, people tell me this all the time, ‘This is ridiculous. it’s going to cost so much money.’ And I say, ‘It’s kind of ridiculous that we’re wrecking the Earth,’ but they want the math.”
This isn’t a news interview. This is a policy infomercial.
Also, speaking of costs, how much do you suppose Gunn-Wright’s appearance this week on MSNBC is worth in terms of donated media? The pro-Green New Deal Democrats owe Velshi at least a “thank you” note or some flowers.
