Ocasio-Cortez, Sanders Dismiss Price Tag of Climate Change Proposals

DES MOINES, IA - NOVEMBER 09: U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) is joined on stage
Stephen Maturen/Getty Images

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) stumped for presidential hopeful Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) in Iowa this weekend and participated in a climate change town hall in Des Moines, where she suggested that the price tag of their multitrillion-dollar climate change proposals is irrelevant because we are “paying for it now” in the form of natural disasters.

The socialist lawmakers participated in a climate change summit in Des Moines over the weekend, firing up the crowd over what they say is a “major global crisis.”

“We have a major global crisis,” Sanders said. “We cannot turn our backs on future generations, we have a moral responsibility.”

Ocasio-Cortez also addressed the crowd, particularly about the cost of their climate change proposals. Sanders, for instance, unveiled a comprehensive climate change proposal, which clocks in at an estimated $16 trillion. He eventually admitted that the financial burden would “end up on some taxpayers’ shoulders.”

Ocasio-Cortez, however, does not view cost as an issue, arguing that we are already “paying” in the form of natural disasters.

“And when it comes to a Green New Deal, people say, always always always with this question of how are you going to pay for it, as though we’re not paying for it now,” she said, citing natural disasters that have occurred since the beginning of time.

The New York lawmaker continued:

As though the Midwest wasn’t underwater this year. As though 3,000 Americans didn’t die in Puerto Rico in Hurricane Maria. As though Hurricane Katrina didn’t happen. As though sea levels aren’t rising. As though California isn’t on fire. How do we pay for that?

she added, failing to explain how a “people-powered movement” will realistically provide the trillions of dollars required for Sanders’ climate change proposal:

The way we pay for this is with a people-powered movement. We’re going to come together to invest, invest in systems and decide that instead of paying for our destruction, we’re going to pay to come together and rebuild this nation.

The climate change town hall came just days before an Arctic blast, which is sweeping the United States this week:

Climate change activists, in recent years, have swapped the words used to describe the impending “threat,” switching from “global warming” to “climate change” in order to reflect “extreme” weather of all kinds, despite the fact that “extreme weather” existed long before the fossil fuel era.

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