Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said he will schedule a vote on the Green New Deal prior to August recess, according to the Hill.
McConnell said he was amused to read that some Democrats wanted to avoid taking a position on the proposal and were considering voting “present.”
“The only thing I would ask is if this is such a popular thing to do and so necessary, why would one want to dodge the vote. This is an opportunity to go on record. ….It’s a debate we’ll have in all likelihood sometime before the August break,” McConnell said.
Earlier this month, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) was left fuming after McConnell announced he would plan a vote on the deal.
“The Republican leader announced he’s going to bring up a resolution he intends to vote against,” Schumer said on the Senate floor. “Now that is what the American people hate about Congress — the pointless partisan games.”
Schumer told McConnell to “bring it on” and insisted the vote wouldn’t “embarrass” Democrats.
“Bring it on. You think it might embarrass Democrats to vote on a nonbinding resolution that some of us may support but not others,” he said. “Trust me, we’ll be fine because the American people know that our entire party actually believes that climate change is happening and it’s caused by humans.”
The Green New Deal proposal would ensure that “all people of the United States” would be provided with healthcare, adequate housing and “economic security.” It would also provide higher education “to all people” in the country. It also guarantees “a job with a family-sustaining wage, adequate family and medical leave, paid vacations, and retirement security to all people of the United States.”
The Green New Deal’s FAQ document–which has since been scrubbed from Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s website–promised to make air travel “unnecessary” and offered “economic security” for those “unwilling” to work.
The FAQ document also tackled the dire issue of “farting cows.” It states, “We set a goal to get to net-zero, rather than zero emissions, in 10 years because we aren’t sure that we’ll be able to fully get rid of farting cows and airplanes that fast.”
