No, the Green New Deal will not ban ice cream, cheeseburgers, milkshakes, cars or air travel — as Republicans have ludicrously claimed over the past few days.
It’s absurd that even needs to be said. However, in an effort to turn public opinion against the ambitious piece of legislation a pair of Democrats introduced last week to try and combat climate change, Republicans have been spewing ridiculous lies about what the deal would do.
On Monday night at a campaign rally in El Paso, Texas, Trump falsely claimed the deal would “shut down a little thing called air travel.”
“How do you take a train to Europe?” Trump said, mocking the deal.
The deal, to any normal human being who has read it, does not ban air travel. It simply would make other forms of public transportation faster and more readily available, thus making air travel less necessary within the U.S.
Congressional Republicans have also gotten in on the foolishness surrounding the deal.
Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) — a member of House Republican leadership — falsely said the deal would “outlaw cars.”
Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY), chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, said in a speech on the Senate floor on Tuesday that the deal would ban ice cream.
“There’s another victim of the Green New Deal, it’s ice cream,” Barrasso said, without any sarcasm. “Livestock will be banned. Say goodbye to dairy, to beef, to family farms, to ranches. American favorites like cheeseburgers and milkshake will become a thing of the past.”
Where do we even begin with this whopper, no pun intended. Barrasso is apparently referring to the plan‘s net-zero emissions goal, which he’d like us to believe is a threat to cows.
Don’t worry, you’ll still be able to get your Ben & Jerry’s and In-N-Out if the Green New Deal passes. As the Washington Post reports, “Nothing in the resolution eliminates ‘all Planes, Cars, Cows, Oil, Gas & the Military,’ as Trump tweeted.”
But don’t expect it to pass.
Even though Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says he’ll put the bill to a vote, he’s only doing it in an effort to put vulnerable Democratic senators in a bind — without proposing any climate change legislation of his own.
Democrats, for their part, are annoyed at the GOP misinformation, but unswayed by the smear campaign.
“Republicans don’t want to debate climate change, they only want to deny it,” Sen. Ed Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat and co-sponsor of the deal, said in a statement.
“The Green New Deal resolution has struck a powerful chord in the country,” Markey continued, “and Republicans, climate deniers and the fossil fuel industry are going to end up on the wrong side of history.”
Published with permission of The American Independent.
