Though many in the Democratic Party are clearly afraid to criticize Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., at least one of her colleagues suffers from no such fear.
Rep. Max Rose, D-N.Y., whose swing district includes Staten Island and parts of southwest Brooklyn, has accused the congresswoman of exploiting legitimate fears over climate change to push through a laundry list of unrelated socialist policies via her ambitiously named Green New Deal.
“This is not the time for milquetoast incrementalism,” Rose said Wednesday in an interview with a local New York news program. “It just isn’t. But with that being said, nothing about what I just said would provide a justification for a massive socialist economic-policy platform. [It’s] just not needed.”
The congressman, who scores well with the environmentalist group League of Conservation Voters, said he agrees climate change is an existential threat to the planet and that it requires a serious response from members of Congress. But he added the response should not be a naked attempt to get an unrelated wishlist of policy items written into law.
“There’s no need to lie to voters right now,” he added. “We don’t need the Democratic version of ‘repeal and replace.'” He also openly dared Ocasio-Cortez to follow through on her threat to launch a primary against Democrats who defy her. “She’s going to keep a list,” he said. “This is very simple because I’m not one to deal in subtleties. I think it’s best not to be passive-aggressive. If she wants to primary me, if the Justice Democrats want to primary me, I’ll lay out the red carpet. We can settle this at the polls.”
The Green New Deal, whose price tag is estimated at as much as $93 trillion over 10 years, has created no small amount of embarrassment for Rose’s party. Senate Democrats, including the many Democratic co-sponsors of the resolution, sheepishly voted “present” on their own version of the resolution last week when Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., called their bluff and actually brought it to the floor for a vote.
