GOP Rep. Fulcher: 'Green New Deal' Should Be Renamed 'Red New Disaster'
GOP Rep. Russ Fulcher of Idaho believes a better name for the Democrat-backed “Green New Deal” program is the “Red New Disaster.”
Fulcher told The Western Journal that it’s clear to him that the plan’s most prominent proponent, 29-year-old fellow freshman Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez “has no real life experience. She’s got no perspective.”
“I would rename the Green New Deal, the Red New Disaster because that’s exactly what it would be,” he added. “It’s embarrassing for those who put that out and appear to be serious about it.”
Co-sponsors of the Green New Deal resolution include Democratic presidential hopefuls Sens. Kamala Harris of California, Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Cory Booker of New Jersey, Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, The Hill reported. Prospective 2020 candidates Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and former Rep. Beto O’Rourke of Texas have also expressed support for the proposal.
According to The Washington Post, more than 70 House Democrats and 12 Senate Democrat have signed on to the Green New Deal. Democratic Sen. Ed Markey of Massachusetts joined Ocasio-Cortez in introducing the resolution.
The plan envisions a massive government intervention into the economy in order to transition the United States to 100 percent renewable energy, including the goal of achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2030.
Currently, 11 percent of the country’s energy consumption comes from renewable sources such as solar, wind and hydroelectric power, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
To achieve the goal, the Green New Deal mandates the replacement of airplanes with high-speed trains, the rebuilding or retrofitting of all buildings in the country to new green standards, and the elimination of all combustion-engine vehicles.
“For anyone to suggest that you can undo clearly a century-plus of fossil fuel development on a ten-year timeline and not to have a decimated economy is just strictly insanity,” Fulcher contended.
The former Idaho state senator and executive with the Boise-based Micron Technology also took exception to Ocasio-Cortez’s plan to move the United States toward socialism as part of her Green New Deal.
The congresswoman included some of her favorite government social programs in the resolution such as free universal health care and college education, government guaranteed employment, and paid family and medical leave, as well as economic security for all.
In order to pay for the program, which has been estimated to cost approximately $7 trillion per year, Ocasio-Cortez has called for raising taxes on the wealthy up to 70 percent, as well as deficit spending and having the Federal Reserve print new money. By way of comparison, the current federal budget for fiscal year 2019 is approximately $4.4 trillion.
“The level of investment required will be massive,” a document shared by the legislator reads. “Even if all the billionaires and companies came together and were willing to pour all the resources at their disposal into this investment, the aggregate value of the investments they could make would not be sufficient.”
Fulcher argued that taxing the wealthiest Americans at a 70 percent rate, which would be the highest in the industrialized world by a wide margin, would also be devastating to the economy.
“If you take people’s incentives away, they will not perform,” he said.
Former Reagan administration economist Art Laffer and Heritage Foundation economist Stephen Moore, the authors of “Trumponomics,” agree that steep taxation of the wealthiest Americans will hurt the economy and in the end, result in them paying less of a percentage of total tax revenues received.
They explain that taxing the wealthy at high rates — like 70 percent, with the intent of bringing in more revenue into the U.S. Treasury assumes that the job creators will continue to work as hard, as well as invest, risk and innovate, even though the federal government is taking $7 out of every $10 they earn versus the current less than $4.
“People who earn a lot of money are economic engines, and it’s usually with a lot of risk, and it’s usually with a lot of failure that leads up to it,” Fulcher said.
“In the process when they are successful, they normally empowered a lot of people around them. They trigger a lot of economic growth that impacts many around them. You’ve got to have that type of individual. They’re often rare.”
He pointed to the examples of Apple, which employees 304,000 in the U.S. either directly or in the other companies that touch and support its products and the Ford Motor Company, with 85,000.
Both of these companies exist now because their founders, Steve Jobs and Henry Ford, took risks and used the money they earned to grow their businesses and start new ones, such as Pixar which was launched by Jobs in 1986.
Prior to starting Apple, Jobs worked as a technician at the game company Atari, and Ford was chief engineer at the Edison Illuminating Company, founded by the inventor of the light bulb, Thomas Edison.
Because Jobs and Ford decided to risk their hard-earned money and start new companies, millions of employees over years have been able to support their families, putting roofs over their heads, sending their children to college and spending the money they earned in the economy, which creates more jobs, so other families can turn around and do the same.
“Capitalism works because there is ownership and incentive,” Fulcher said. “You have a will and a reason to perform and a will and a reason to participate in the economy. You have the promise of reaping some of what you sow. The more we take that away, the less prosperity we’re going to have.”
The lawmaker described the socialism underlying the Green New Deal as a “false philosophy.”
“It would be one that would relegate us to a much lesser economic and political power, if we adopted (it),” Fulcher said.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell promised that he will schedule a vote on the Green New Deal.
“I’ve noted with great interest the Green New Deal,” he told reporters on Capitol Hill on Tuesday. “And we’re going to be voting on that in the Senate. Give everybody an opportunity to go on record and see how they feel about the Green New Deal.”
The Hill reported it has no chance of passing the Republican-controlled Senate.
Fulcher is also a strong pro-life advocate and chose to make that issue the focus of his maiden speech from the House floor last month.
Very proud to give my first speech on the House floor on an issue I care about deeply. #ProLife pic.twitter.com/3xkxjFmIck
— Rep. Russ Fulcher (@RepRussFulcher) January 18, 2019
“There’s none more vulnerable or unable to speak than the unborn, and there is no more noble cause than protecting and promoting life,” he said.
Fulcher told The Western Journal, “I see it as foundational. Not all issues are created equal. If you can’t stand for life, why are we here at all? Why are we doing any of this?”
The Idahoan called what embattled Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam is advocating for “infanticide.”
“It doesn’t take long to go back in history and found out what happens to societies when they rationalize away the importance of life,” he argued.
Fulcher added, “If (you) can rationalize taking life … you can rationalize anything.”
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