Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez may want to consider hiring a new chief of staff, because Saikat Chakrabarti does not know when to shut up.
He revealed recently in a conversation with Washington Gov. Jay Inslee’s climate director that the ultimate goal of the New York congresswoman’s absurd Green New Deal is not to combat climate change. Rather, Chakrabarti boasted, its true purpose is to address wealth inequality.
“The interesting thing about the Green New Deal,” Ocasio-Cortez’s chief of staff said, according to the Washington Post, “is it wasn’t originally a climate thing at all.”
Chakrabarti continued, directing his remarks to Inslee’s staffer, “Do you guys think of it as a climate thing? Because we really think of it as a how-do-you-change-the-entire-economy thing.”
And there it is. He said the quiet part out loud — the part that critics of Ocasio-Cortez’s resolution, including Democratic lawmakers and the AFL-CIO, have been screaming about for months.
Since the publication of his remarks in the Post, Chakrabarti has actually gone to social media to state that the Green New Deal, which calls for an estimated $93 trillion overhaul of the U.S. economy, was always just a Trojan Horse for something grander than merely cleaning up the environment, and that he has never represented it otherwise.
“They finally got us! The #GreenNewDeal is a plan to solve climate change AND reverse wealth inequality by proactively building the new energy economy in America,” he tweeted. “That means building solar panels, bullet trains, electric cars, batteries, new smart grids, and so much more.”
They finally got us! The #GreenNewDeal is a plan to solve climate change AND reverse wealth inequality by proactively building the new energy economy in America. That means building solar panels, bullet trains, electric cars, batteries, new smart grids, and so much more. https://t.co/9k9i65whWu
— Saikat Chakrabarti (@saikatc) July 11, 2019
That is a nice attempt at spin, but I am not sure anyone is stupid enough to buy it.
The Green New Deal resolution does indeed call for a multitrillion-dollar restructuring of the U.S. economy. It is a wish list of preposterously ambitious initiatives, including one that would upgrade or replace all existing buildings in the U.S. “to achieve maximal energy efficiency, water efficiency, safety, affordability, comfort, and durability, including through electrification.”
But Chakrabarti is lying when he says his team has always been upfront about the proposal being first and foremost a “how-do-you-change-the-entire-economy thing.”
From day one, Ocasio-Cortez and the measure’s Democratic Senate sponsor, Sen. Ed Markey of Massachusetts, have sold this stupid resolution as an emergency measure meant to address the world’s most pressing crisis: Climate change. That the Green New Deal also addresses jobs and the economy has been sold to voters as being secondary to the primary issue of saving the environment.
So, yes, the resolution has always called for an overhaul of the economy. But, no, they never admitted that this had been the chief focus all along, and that climate change was just an excuse for socialism.
The most amusing thing about Chakrabarti’s off-hand admission is that angry voters in Massachusetts will almost certainly confront Markey on this issue, demanding to know why their senator brought Ocasio-Cortez’s attempt to “change the entire economy” to Congress’ upper chamber. Does the senator admit he was in on the plot to lie, or does he frame himself as someone’s dupe? Unlike Ocasio-Cortez, Markey’s constituency stretches well beyond the bounds of a comfortably safe D+29 congressional district. He represents all of Massachusetts, which, by the way, very recently elected Scott Brown.
Markey hitched his fortunes to the Ocasio-Cortez wagon. I hope he enjoys the ride.
