Although United States Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Green New Deal failed to advance in the Senate on Tuesday, that did not stop a video of her stirring speech slamming Republicans who called the deal and general concern over the environment “elitist” from going viral.
“This is not an elitist issue, this is a quality of life issue,” Ocasio-Cortez said during a meeting of the House Committee on Financial Services. She also emphasised the importance of focussing on climate change as a bipartisan issue.
The impassioned response came after Congressman Sean Duffy mocked her plan to fight climate change, saying it would increase the total cost of housing for those in lower income brackets and the homeless, and benefit “rich liberals from maybe New York or California.”
Ocasio-Cortez addressed these cost concerns and said “…we’re either going to decide if we’re going to pay to react, or if we’re going to pay to be proactive.”
The Green New Deal – a set of policy recommendations that calls on the US to make efforts to reduce the use of fossil fuels to fight climate change – fell short of the votes it needed for a debate in the Senate.
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