Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said Tuesday that he will bring the Green New Deal up for a vote in the Senate in an apparent attempt to force Democrats to go on the record about the proposal drafted by some of the party’s most liberal members.
“It will give everybody an opportunity to go on record and see how they feel about the Green New Deal,” McConnell said at a press conference on Capitol Hill, his mouth curling up into a smile.
The Green New Deal was spearheaded by one of the most well-known faces in the House’s freshman class, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY). Several Democrats in the House and Senate have signed onto the deal, which aims to curb climate change while boosting the U.S. economy and creating jobs. Yet Democratic leaders like House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) have not been particularly enthusiastic about the plan.
Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) is the lead sponsor of the bill in the Senate, and he was joined by a handful of co-sponsors. A vote on the bill will force more Democrats to go on record on the deal, even though the legislation has no real chance of becoming law.
A vote will shine a spotlight on the Democratic party’s 2020 hopefuls. All of the senators who have announced their bids or expressed a clear interest in running in 2020 have already signed on co-sponsors: Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Kamala Harris (D-CA), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN, and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT). Yet some potential candidates like Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) have yet to weigh in on the proposal.
Nice one-and-a-half-dimensional chess, Yertle. I’m sure everyone is quaking in their boots.
Have his parliamentary skills atrophied in the last five years, or is it just me?
Kinda like the Grinch?
Wait until he finds out that most of America (that doesn’t have its head up its a$$) actually support the green new deal. Only the corporatists would be against it.
So much for " No show votes."
Why not try to kill Obamacare again, too, Yertle?
I was just about to say something similar. I’m not sure who he thinks is hurt by this. Any Democratic presidential nomination contender can vote for it and it will only help them in the primary and have little to no effect on the general. There is only (I think) one red state Dem up for reelection in 2020 and it won’t hurt Doug Jones to vote against it or for it. This strikes me as a good tactic for maybe ten years ago, but one that won’t amount to shit even three months from now.