The Green New Deal Gets Zero 'Yes' Votes on the Senate Floor
- Kayla Koslosky Former ChristianHeadlines.com Editor
- Updated Mar 28, 2019
![The Green New Deal Gets Zero 'Yes' Votes on the Senate Floor](https://i.swncdn.com/media/700w/cms/RT/66089-mike-lee-andrew-burton-staff-getty-images-184.1200w.tn.jpg)
The Green New Deal – revered by many Congressional Democrats – failed to receive a single yes during a procedural vote before the Senate on Tuesday.
According to Fox News, the Green New Deal – regarded as aggressively socialist by Congressmen and women across party lines – failed to reach the 60 yes votes necessary to debate on the legislation. The outlet reports that 57 lawmakers including several Democrats voted “no” to the consideration of the Green New Deal and 42 Democrats, including the bill’s sponsors Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Senator Ed Markey (D-MA), voted “present.”
A “present” vote, according to the Huffington Post “Translates to ‘a soft no.’”
Pacific Standard Magazine reports that it appears that Democrats – several of whom have thrown their hats into the ring for the Democratic presidential nomination for the 2020 election – did not vote to pursue the measure in leu of the upcoming Presidential Election.
The magazine said many Democrats and climate activists declined to vote “yes” to the bill because they feared Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) would turn the deal into a political weapon.
During the vote on Tuesday, Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) took his time to speak to explain why he found the legislation “ridiculous.”
Lee said, “For Mr. President, I rise today to consider the Green New Deal with the level of seriousness it deserves.”
Lee then stood before his colleagues and poked fun at the Green New Deal. He quipped that under the Green New Deal’s desire to eliminate planes, people in Alaska would be left with Tauntauns – fictional space creatures featured in the Star Wars franchise – for transportation and people in Hawaii would be left with 20-foot seahorses to move from the Island to the mainland.
Lee questioned, “In a future without air travel, how are people supposed to get around the vast expanses of, say, Alaska during the winter?”
“I’ll tell you how,” he asserted. “Tauntauns, Mr. President: a beloved species of repto-mammals native to the ice planet of Hoth,” Lee said.
While Lee pointed out the unattainable and unbelievable suggestions in the Green New Deal, Senator Lamar Alexander (R-TN) came to the vote with an alternative solution.
According to the Pacific Standard on the Senate floor on Monday Alexander said, “I believe climate change is real; I believe human emissions are a major cause of climate change, and I believe the democratic plan for climate change ... the Green New Deal, is so far out in left field that not many are going to take it seriously,"
Lamar continued, "So as one Republican, I'm here today to propose this response to climate change and that is that the United States should launch a New Manhattan Project for clean energy."
Photo courtesy: Getty Images/Andrew Burton/Staff
Video courtesy: CNN