Bernie Sanders Releases 16 Trillion Dollar Green New Deal; Says It Will Pay For Itself

Democratic 2020 hopeful Sen. Bernie Sanders on Thursday released his plan for a Green New Deal – promising that the multitrillion-dollar plan to radically overhaul the economy and combat climate change will “pay for itself” over the next 15 years. Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders has released a $16.3 trillion climate plan that builds on the Green New Deal and calls for the United States to move to renewable energy across the economy by 2050 and declare climate change a national emergency. Keep in mind the total federal budget is four trillion.

“As president, Bernie Sanders will launch the decade of the Green New Deal, a ten-year, nationwide mobilization centered around justice and equity during which climate change will be factored into virtually every area of policy, from immigration to trade to foreign policy and beyond,” his campaign said in a press release.

While the Vermont senator had already endorsed the sweeping Democratic proposal to combat climate change and had teamed up with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York on climate legislation, Sanders’ climate plan provides the most detail yet on how he envisions the climate change moonshot taking shape if he is elected president.

Sanders describes his plan, released Thursday, as a “ten-year, nationwide mobilization centered on equity and humanity” that would create 20 million new jobs. The Green New Deal resolution, which Ocasio-Cortez put forth with Sen. Ed Markey of Massachusetts, calls on the nation to eliminate its carbon footprint by 2030 and to shift away from fossil fuels such as oil and coal and replace them with renewable energy sources such as wind and solar power.

The Vermont senator has long been an advocate for the Green New Deal, but only this year has it become a central policy for many of those seeking the Democratic nomination for president. This year, it was given a big push in Congress when Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., introduced a formal resolution on it – which stalled in the Senate but drew support from a number of 2020 hopefuls.

All versions of such plans have gone beyond direct energy-related policies and instead seek to overhaul the economy and society at large. In fact, Ocasio-Cortez’s former chief of staff admitted that the Green New Deal was really about fundamentally changing the U.S. economy, not the environment. Sanders’ plan is no different, promising that he will “generate the political will necessary for a wholesale transformation of our society” and proposing $16.3 trillion in public investments.

In addition to promises that include reaching 100 percent renewable energy by 2030 and decarbonization by 2050 and ending unemployment by creating 20 million “good paying” jobs tied to clean energy, Sanders claims he will save families money with a host of policies — including launching universal high-speed Internet, weatherizing homes, building new public transportation and rebuilding America’s infrastructure.

He also promises “justice for frontline communities” via a $40 billion “Climate Justice Resiliency Fund” as well as an extra $200 billion to the Green Climate Fund. The plan also promises support for the “climate justice movement” to take on the fossil fuel industry and other polluters and “lead the globe in solving the climate crisis.”

In a nod to the social justice part of the plan, he says that the deal is an “opportunity to uproot historical injustices and inequities to advance social, racial, and economic justice, including redressing the exclusion of black, brown, Native American and other vulnerable communities from the programs that made up the original New Deal.”

But the White House hopeful also promises that the plan will pay for itself over 16 years, saying experts have scored the plan and its economic effects. According to the campaign, revenue will be generated via a host of measures, including slapping the fossil fuel industry with fees, litigation, and taxes, and generating revenue from the sale of energy. Taxing the fossil fuel industries will only cause them to pass costs onto the consumer.

Further sources of revenue or savings include tax revenue from the proposed 20 million jobs, higher taxes on the wealthy (who are already taxed to the max), lower military spending, and a reduced need for welfare spending “due to the creation of millions of good-paying, unionized jobs.”

Any such plan is unlikely to get any Republican support — and would almost certainly rely entirely on Democrats having strong majorities in both the House and Senate should Sanders win the nomination and the presidency. Never mind the fact that the country will be bankrupt.

The plan contradicts itself. One goal is to eliminate fossil fuels in the US but to pay for that by taxing fossil fuels…political doublespeak. This ‘new’ plan is no more connected to reality than the AOC deal, it can be broken down in one issue both want to replace fossil plants in 10-15 years. It can take longer than that to get a new power plant approved, let alone online generating power.

Sanders said Thursday that his plan is designed to battle climate change. But a thorough reading of the document makes it clear that the real goal of the proposal by the self-described democratic socialist is a Big Government takeover of America’s economy.

That’s because the real root of climate change for environmental extremists and socialist radicals like Sanders goes much deeper than our actions and lifestyle choices. They believe our free-market economic system and America itself are at fault – and think a second American Revolution is needed.

Sanders’ plan calls for a complete transition to electric vehicles and green energy by 2030. This deadline is impossible – not because of opposition by the “evil” fossil fuel industry that Sanders demonizes, but because of physics.

Airplanes cannot run on renewable energy. Electricity does not generate the thrust needed for planes to get airborne. If fossil fuels are eliminated by 2030 – as Sanders proposes – what happens to the airline industry?

Do we ship all goods via the sea? Does Sanders think cargo ships will run on batteries? Will he create a commercial nuclear fleet? No, nuclear power is slated for extinction along with fossil fuels under his version of the Green New Deal. And so too, apparently, is our economic prosperity.

And how do we get from our homes to our jobs, to go shopping, and everywhere else that we travel without fossil fuels? The 281 million cars, trucks, motorcycles and other vehicles that now travel U.S. roads would be useless without gasoline and diesel fuel, with the exception of the few that are electric vehicles.

Does Sanders know that fertilizers and pesticides come from fossil fuels? Will they become illegal, tremendously reducing crop production? Is mass starvation a price worth paying to end the use of fossil fuels?

Proposals by Sanders, fellow democratic socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and others to adopt a Green New Deal that would eliminate all fossil fuels and make other revolutionary changes would hurt every American. They may sound good at first but are delusional at best and they should not be taken seriously, much less supported. Our country will fall into depression if we get rid of oil and gas.

It’s like a giant Obamacare, the only difference is that “if you like your Country you cannot keep your Country.” Bernie Sanders never saw a dime of

somebody else’s money that he didn’t think he could spend better than they would. Bernie is more interested in implementing socialism and disguising it as a climate emergency. He’ll carefully impose ‘necessary’ policies that whittle away rights and soon, we’ll all be in Orwell’s 1984. No thanks.

Other candidates have offered similar plans. Former Vice President Joe Biden released a $5 trillion-plus climate proposal that he says would lead the U.S. to net-zero emissions of carbon pollution by 2050, and he is calling for $1.7 trillion in federal spending over 10 years. Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren has proposed investing $2 trillion in federal funding in clean energy programs as part of a Green New Deal, including her Green Apollo Program to invest in clean energy research and development and a Green Marshall Plan devoted to encouraging countries to buy and use American-made clean energy technologies.. She has risen to number two in the polls – is basing her campaign around an endless stream of socialist policy proposals.  Elizabeth Warren wants to have the money you save in the bank subjected to a government confiscation tax or commonly known as a wealth tax. Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren — their policies would transform America into Venezuela.