Democrats Spend Climate Change Hearing NOT Talking About The Green New Deal

Democrats spent time during a House Committee on the Budget hearing on climate change distancing themselves from, and avoiding discussions about, the Green New Deal.

“I know Republicans put out notices that we were going to have a hearing on the Green New Deal,” Kentucky Rep. John Yarmuth, the committee’s top Democrat and chairman, said during Tuesday’s hearing. “There are 11 committees that have jurisdiction over that piece of legislation, we’re not one of them.”

“As I said, this hearing is about the economic impact of climate change,” Yarmuth said after calling global warming a “topic we cannot afford to ignore” that’s “increasingly an economic and fiscal issue.”

Ohio GOP Rep. Bill Johnson shot back that a climate change hearing would be incomplete without addressing the Green New Deal, which is cosponsored by 93 House Democrats and endorsed by presidential candidates.

“Mr. Chairman, how can we have a discussion, a serious discussion, on climate change on this committee without addressing the primary plank of the platform that you and your colleagues have offered, the Green New Deal, to resolve climate change?” Johnson asked Yarmuth.

Yarmuth responded that the Green New Deal didn’t have a majority of Democratic support and that “there are hundreds of proposals to deal with climate change” that ought to be considered.

“We ought to start by agreeing that there is a problem here and we need to act responsibly as a Congress to address it,” Yarmuth said.

New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Massachusetts Sen. Ed Markey, both Democrats, introduced the Green New Deal in February, calling for a complete overhaul of the U.S. economy to reach “net-zero” emissions within 10 years.

The bill also calls for programs totally unrelated programs, like jobs guarantees and universal health care.

Top congressional Democrats have not embraced the Green New Deal, which GOP rivals labeled as “socialist.”

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has so far avoided bringing the Green New Deal to the floor, and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer joined his caucus in voting “present” on the Green New Deal when it hit the Senate floor.

California Rep. Scott Peters is one of those Democrats not supporting the Green New Deal.

Peters said the Green New Deal was “divisive” and said most Democrats on the budget committee did not endorse it — though, a GOP lawmaker member later said more than half of committee Democrats co-sponsored it.

“We’re going to have to moderate our politics” to get results, Peters said. “I did litigation. That’s not what I’m here for.”

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