Climate change, whether you believe it is man-made or not, is a major issue with a large portion of the American electorate, but have the Democrats gone too far?
NANCY PELOSI: “The green dream, or whatever they call it, nobody knows what it is, but they’re for it, right?”
In what may come as a surprise to many on both sides of the aisle, the most powerful Democrat in the country, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., seems to think so.
Recently, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., released her “Green New Deal” plan to combat climate change and what she and many on the left see as social injustices.
The plan — which would cost taxpayers untold trillions of dollars — has a few rather extreme ways to combat climate change, like rebuilding or upgrading every single building in the U.S. to be more energy efficient, building trains across the oceans to eliminate air travel and banning nuclear energy within 10 years, just to name a few crazy key points.
Upon the plan’s release, Pelosi, third in the line of succession for the presidency behind Vice President Mike Pence, was more than a little dismissive of it and the freshman firebrand congresswoman behind it.
“It will be one of several or maybe many suggestions that we receive. The green dream, or whatever they call it, nobody knows what it is, but they’re for it, right?” Pelosi quipped.
Pelosi backtracked somewhat in a later interview with “Rolling Stone,” but it’s clear the Speaker of the House isn’t exactly on board with what is essentially a pipe dream.
Pelosi also told Rolling Stone she has a “different responsibility as a leader”— not to shape public opinion, but to respond to it.
“You have to make decisions that you’re going to reach certain goals, and some of our goals we think are achievable,” she said.
Pelosi recognizes that she alone can’t convince Democrats — much less Republicans — to support something their constituents don’t want. And she can’t put a Green New Deal to a vote knowing it will lose.