Beto O’Rourke began his 2020 campaign by siding with some of the most outspoken and left-wing members of his party on the issues of climate change and the Green New Deal.
Speaking at a coffee shop in Keokuk, Iowa, O’Rourke fielded questions ranging from healthcare to trade, but it was his remarks on climate change that demonstrated he won’t be billing himself as a moderate, despite some critics labeling him as wishy-washy on key policy questions.
“I haven’t seen anything better that addresses this singular crisis we face — a crisis that could, at its worst, lead to extinction,” O’Rourke said after an audience member asked him for his position on the Green New Deal.
“The scientists are absolutely unanimous on this — that we have no more than 12 years to take incredibly bold action on this crisis. My gratitude to them for the young people who stepped up to offer such a bold proposal to meet such a grave challenge.”
The Green New Deal, first introduced by freshman Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., has been derided by both sides of the aisle as unrealistic.
According to a report by conservative think tank American Action Forum, Ocasio-Cortez’s plan would cost anywhere between $51 to $93 trillion. The size of the entire American economy is an estimated $21 trillion.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., told protesters in her office last month when asked to support the deal that “there’s no way to pay for it.”
Other Democratic lawmakers in the House, such as Reps. Don Beyer, Sean Casten, and Elaine Luria, who all co-chair the New Democrat Coalition’s Climate Change Task Force, have signaled their opposition to the proposal as well.
O’Rourke hitching himself to the radical proposal is the latest signal he plans on running a more liberal campaign than expected.
On Thursday, the Washington Examiner reported that a top adviser to O’Rourke is a former campaign staffer for self-described democratic socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and co-authored a book slamming community organizer Saul Alinsky as a moderate who “disparaged the idea of revolutionary change.”
“If you want to pose the solution to your question, from your perspective, where you live, from how you see things, I am all ears right now. There’s no sense in campaigning if you already know every single answer,” O’Rourke said in Iowa.
