Study: Green New Deal Would Cost Avg. Household $74k in First Year Alone
A study of the far left’s proposed Green New Deal finds that the Democrats’ pipe dream of eliminating fossil fuels and radically transforming the country’s economy would cost the average American household nearly $75,000 in its first year alone.
A February study from the Competitive Enterprise Institute evaluated how the plan could affect the citizens and economies of 11 states if it were to be implemented. The study was a continuation of research begun in 2019.
Kent Lassman and Daniel Turner, who conducted the study, found that the far-reaching plan would, at a minimum, “impose large and recurring costs on American households.”
“We conclude that among the 11 states analyzed, the GND would cost a typical household a minimum of $74,287 in the first year of implementation,” Lassman and Turner wrote.
“The sum of our analysis is not favorable for the GND’s advocates—or for the typical household budget. At best, it can be described as an overwhelmingly expensive proposal reliant on technologies that have not yet been invented.”
“More likely, the GND would drive the American economy into a steep economic depression, while putting off-limits affordable energy necessary for basic social institutions like hospitals, schools, clean water and sanitation, cargo shipments, and the production and transport of the majority of America’s food supply,” Lassman and Turner concluded.
Of the 11 states evaluated, the Competitive Enterprise Institute found citizens of natural resource-rich Alaska would pay the most for the Democratic crusade to save the world from climate change and capitalism.
The average Alaskan household would pay $84,584 during the first year of a Green New Deal.
The study noted that it was challenging to come up with an exact price tag for such a plan, as various Green New Deal proposals touted by progressive lawmakers have been “broad and open-ended.”
“The program is only limited by the capacity of legislators to imagine new government programs,” Lassman and Turner wrote. “Therefore, it is impossible to calculate the maximum cost.”
In the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s current evaluation, the Green New Deal would still cost average American households an average of $40,000 annually six or more years after its implementation.
Variations of a Green New Deal have been championed by the left for several years.
Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and “squad” member Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York have championed a Green New Deal as a way to save the planet from greenhouse emissions and greedy capitalists.
Sanders has de-emphasized his plan’s hefty price tag, as he believes the plan will “avert climate catastrophe and create 20 million jobs,” according to his website.
The self-described democratic socialist has also touted his plan on Twitter.
We need a Green New Deal and a homes guarantee. https://t.co/AAqIw8nGfe
— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) December 13, 2019
Ocasio-Cortez, meanwhile, has been vocal that enacting a Green New Deal is a matter of life and death.
A week ago, the former bartender read the Green New Deal proposal in its entirety on the House floor, The Hill reported.
“Many of my colleagues have never even read the resolution that they’re speaking on. They haven’t opened a single word of it.”
Taking note that some colleagues may not have read the #GreenNewDeal, @RepAOC @AOC reads the entire resolution — WATCH FULL: https://t.co/CQKAv97Xyl pic.twitter.com/LsEA2xWJ0k
— The Hill (@thehill) February 26, 2020
She previously shared her support for Washington Gov. Jay Inslee’s Green New Deal plan to “decarbonize much of the U.S. by 2030 and revivify the labor movement by repealing right-to-work laws and making it easier to form unions.”
.@JayInslee’s climate plan is the most serious + comprehensive one to address our crisis in the 2020 field.
It meets key marks:
✅ Big enough
✅ Fast enough
✅ Economically stimulating for working people
✅ Acknowledges injustice + w/ an eye to make communities whole https://t.co/C7nyEsdUxk— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) May 18, 2019
A 2019 study co-authored by former Congressional Budget Office director Douglas Holtz-Eakin predicted such a policy could cost somewhere in the ballpark of $93 trillion.
A Green New Deal would nationalize essentially every sector of the economy and force socialism on the American people — as it is intended to do.
AOC’s former chief of staff, Saikat Chakrabarti, admitted last year that a Green New Deal is not about fighting climate change, but about enacting socialism.
“The interesting thing about the Green New Deal is it wasn’t originally a climate thing at all,” Chakrabarti said.
He instead described the Green New Deal as a “how-do-you-change-the-entire-economy thing.”
Long-shot Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Elizabeth Warren said last month that she feels the Green New Deal does not go far enough in its scheming to seize the economy from the private sector.
“What I want to see us do is get off an oil economy and not only for ourselves, but for the rest of the world,” Warren said at a CNN town hall event.
“I want to see us move entirely to green. And let me say on this, I not only support a Green New Deal, I don’t think it goes far enough. I also have a Blue New Deal, because we’ve got to be thinking about our oceans as well that we need to protect,” she added.
Any variation of a Green New Deal is not only impractical; it would bankrupt the country and lay waste to the middle class.
While Democrats claim to be champions of America’s middle class, they apparently have few reservations about taxing it into poverty.
Truth and Accuracy
We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.
Advertise with The Western Journal and reach millions of highly engaged readers, while supporting our work. Advertise Today.
