Thanks to hipster legislator Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, adjectives are all the rage.
The Brooklyn progressive has slapped a modifier in front of the public works policies of a long dead president and Democrats, supposedly the party of new ideas and young faces. Ocasio-Cortez calls it the “Green New Deal.”
The environmental stimulus package is short on details, inevitably long on corporatism, and all the rage on the Left. Ocasio-Cortez wants “a carbon-free, 100 percent renewable energy system and a fully modernized electrical grid by 2035.” This will require a large surge in government spending.
The hundreds of billions in tax-credits and corporate subsidies are not hard to imagine. The corporate cronyism is inevitable. A Green New Deal means a government picking and choosing winners and losers among corporations willing to play along. Think Solyndra only on a much more massive scale.
Republicans roll their eyes, but they do so to their own detriment. Ocasio-Cortez understands branding, and the Green New Deal could be a political winner.
As of Wednesday, 15 House Democrats have gotten on board and are calling for a select committee to explore the idea. That is a small number now, but consider Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s response to the Green New Deal earlier this month when Ocasio-Cortez led 200 activists storming into her Capitol Hill offices.
Deeply inspired by the young activists & advocates leading the way on confronting climate change. The climate crisis threatens the futures of communities nationwide, and I strongly support reinstating the select committee to address the crisis. https://t.co/rjVJYSJraf
— Nancy Pelosi (@NancyPelosi) November 13, 2018
Republicans will fight any select committee on global warming with a vengeance (Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner, R-Wisc., has already dubbed it “the hot air committee”). But they may end up swallowing many of its provisions.
Infrastructure is one of the few opportunities for President Trump to get something done with Pelosi and her incoming House majority. The two spoke briefly about the possibility on election night and could move on bill in the new year. This isn’t without risk though. Pelosi won’t want to hand the White House a win without significant concessions. She could conveniently claim victory by rolling some Green New Deal ideas into the final package.
If sprinkling adjectives around passes for political innovation these days, then Ocasio-Cortez may be on the verge of a significant victory.
