Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and one of his top supporters, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) are disgusted by the lack of climate change questions at Tuesday evening’s Democrat debate, with the New York lawmaker calling it a “horrifying” development.
While moderators asked candidates about the economy, gun violence, health care, and coronavirus, a discussion on climate change — one of the Democrat Party’s go-to talking points — was noticeably absent from Tuesday evening’s discussion.
“Not a single climate change question. Horrifying,” Ocasio-Cortez remarked following the debate.
“A disgrace,” Sanders agreed:
A disgrace. https://t.co/O4G9u0xfDr
— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) February 26, 2020
Sanders did, however, attempt to incorporate climate change into various topics, particularly during a brief discussion on the coronavirus.
“Whether or not the issue is climate change, which is clearly a global crisis requiring international cooperation, or infectious diseases like coronavirus, requiring international cooperation, we have to work and expand the World Health Organization,” Sanders said, weaving climate change into the discussion.
Sanders also used the final question — on naming a “misconception” about himself — as a plug for climate change action.
“Misconception — and you’re hearing it here tonight, is that the ideas I’m talking about are radical. They’re not. In one form or another, they exist in countries all over the world,” Sanders said, stressing the “necessity, the moral imperative, to address the existential threat of climate change.”
“Other countries are doing that,” he said.
Sanders, who has released a $16.3 trillion Green New Deal proposal, released a fact sheet on Monday explaining how he would pay for the pricey measure.
He plans to pay for it, in part, by pursuing litigation against the fossil fuel industry, cutting defense spending, and implementing additional taxes.
As Breitbart News detailed:
His $16.3 trillion Green New Deal plan, perhaps one of his most prolific proposals, will be paid for, he claims, through a variety of methods including slashes in military spending and lawsuits against the fossil fuel industry.
He is calling to reduce defense spending by $1.215 trillion “by scaling back military operations on protecting the global oil supply.”
His campaign claims he will raise $3.085 trillion by “making the fossil fuel industry pay for their pollution, through litigation, fees, and taxes, and eliminating federal fossil fuel subsidies.”
He expects to garner another $6.4 trillion “from the wholesale of energy produced by the regional Power Marketing Administrations.”
“This revenue will be collected from 2023-2035, and after 2035 electricity will be virtually free, aside from operations and maintenance costs,” his website states.
Sanders also claims his Green New Deal plan will create 20 million jobs, which will effectively create a new tax base and eliminate the need for $1.31 trillion in “federal and state safety net spending due to the creation of millions of good-paying, unionized jobs.”
His campaign actually argues that enacting his multitrillion-dollar climate change proposal will save the United States $2.9 trillion in the next decade, $21 trillion over the next 30 years, and $70.4 trillion over the next 80 years.
“If we do not act, the U.S. will lose $34.5 trillion by the end of the century in economic productivity,” he claims.
Sanders, who has described climate change as a major national security issue, also expressed outrage after the passage of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada (USMCA) agreement in January, lamenting that it did not contain “a single damn mention of ‘climate change’”.
Read more at Breitbart
I see where Tom Steyer has pulled out of the Race that’s going to dissapoint the Greens
The man is a complete economic illiterate.
It could be as simple as they asked the questions that everyday Democrats wanted answered.
I believe that most people (Americans especially) are agnostics regarding AGW, and it’s a conversation killer.
I have watched politics for over 50 years. It is very common for Democrats to claim that their expensive programs will end up saving money. This never happens. The money gets spent, and the middle class pays.
Science is settled (according to the democrats) – therefore nothing left to ask.
Any and all solutions are completely unprovable – therefore the answer to “what would you do Mr Sanders to fight climate change?” would be specious at best and catastrophically costly at worst…though I do like me a good fairytale and AOC is always up for that…
Standing behind their Podiums makes me think of a Game Show,I miss Game Shows
Bernie Sanders is a fool . It wasn’t mentioned because it was replaced with a new big scary .
The Democrats just don’t get it . They like to tell people what their priorities are .
Sanders is Democrat KRYPTONITE . Rant on Bernie .
He talks down to or simply shouts down anyone who isn’t drinking his cool -aid .
I am starting to think they are purposely tossing this election .
I seriously doubt that they’re “tossing it”. They can’t afford to. In the next four years there will probably be two new justices appointed to the US Supreme Court. Someone in “that party” must recognize what that will mean – after all, they’ve had 35/40 years of ‘left-leaning’ courts. Something weird and wonderful is probably planned for their ‘Convention’ – someone who is on the sidelines right now, but still in the public eye.
“Misconception — and you’re hearing it here tonight, is that the ideas I’m talking about are radical. They’re not. In one form or another, they exist in countries all over the world,” Sanders said…
Let’s see now – “countries all over the world”. There’s what now, 194 “countries” in the United Nations? How many are Communist, Socialist or just pure dictatorships? Fifty percent? Sixty percent? His ideas are ‘radical’ when presented in a Republic. (Note: the words ‘democrat’ or ‘democratic’ do not appear anywhere in the US “Declaration of Independence” or the US “Constitution”. The Constitution does promise a “Republican form of government” to the States. Anyone who refers to the United States of America as a ‘democracy’ has been brain-washed. I wonder how well ‘re-education camps’ would go over?)
Unless Bernie Sanders does a complete turn around and admits he is wrong about the Global Climate within say 2 months, then the Democrats have lost the next election, just as did the Australian Labor Party when they went with the lies. True, we have a number of Climate Terrorists backed by a corrupt Media, but the people in the street know that it is all one big Scam. Their voice doesn’t get heard from day to day because of that same deceiving Media which shuts down any real Scientist who speaks out here.
However when it comes to election time, then the dice is down and the real feelings of the public at large are made known.
With so many people still being misled by the Climate Lies, then we need to educate them with true facts. There are now so many lectures by Scientists like Dan Britt that can be found on the net and we have to get the tweedledumbs to watch, listen and learn. Since so many teachers are preaching the leftish gospel then we need to provide parents taking children to school with the history of our Planet's normally very high temperatures and extremely high carbon content. This can be done by putting the youtube addresses of real Scientists' lectures and a paper on the Earth's Climate History, all on USB memory sticks and hand them out to the parents twixt cars and school gates.
Also never miss an opportunity to talk to people in shops and waiting rooms. I find that 99% of the time they already know that we are being lied to by bent politicians, but even so it encourages them to pass on the message.
I have made a list of honest Scientists' lectures and interviews which now numbers 40, and there are more coming to the surface every day. I also have set out a History of the Earth's Climate, which of course I can share.
Sorry Tweedlee Dumb and Tweedlee Dumber we have more important things then fake crisis like Global Warming/Climate Change like a open Border and Terrorists Crossing Over
I think they asked no questions about climate in an effort to minimize attention and airtime to Steyer who had already outdone the others in shrillness about climate.