Dear editor:
Is it now a prerequisite to join the Democratic party that you take leave of all of your senses? Or, is it just Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and her nutty followers? Has anyone out there in Liberty County read this so-called New Green Bill of Rights?
It begins with a full employment program to ensure all citizens have a job, whether they want one or not. It will be implemented through a nationally funded program where people are given public sector jobs even if they don’t work. This would cost over $2 trillion.
The core of the Green New Deal is a proposal, to eliminate “pollution and greenhouse gas emissions” and to meet “100 percent of the power needs in the United States through renewable, zero-emission energy research in wind, solar and geothermal within 10 years. That’s being done now, but unsuccessfully. Ten years will not change that. The cost is high and the production is low. How many homes in Minnesota will benefit from solar? Uh, none.
They also want to underwrite the establishment of federal, state, and municipal public-owned banks that function as non-profit utilities. The government can’t manage congress never-the-less all the banks. Give me my money, now!
How about strengthening the media democracy by expanding federal support for locally-owned broadcast media and local newspapers? Pravda here we come.
Can you even image a military that is 50% of today’s strength with all of the turmoil that exists around the world? Fort Stewart—it was nice knowing you.
Do you really want the right to accessible and affordable utilities, such as heat, electricity, phone, internet, and public transportation through democratically run, government owned utilities that operate at cost, not for profit. Try calling the government when your lights go out.
If you want to eliminate all rental property, support their immediate halt to all foreclosures and evictions. No one will ever rent apartments or houses.
We will also forgive student loan debt—$1.5 trillion. If students borrow more than they can pay back, why should they be bailed out? In case you haven’t figured it out yet. College is not for everyone. Let the students party and get drunk at home.
And last but not least, my favorite—single-payer Medicare-for-All. There are 44 million seniors on Medicare at a cost of $10,379 per person per year. Imagine adding 284,170,336 more people to this? Can anyone count to $3 trillion? There go your taxes, through the roof.
In Canada, the average waiting time between a transfer from a general practitioner to a specialist is 19.8 weeks. You might even have to wait 39 weeks for surgery. With Medicare for all, do you want the government to decide if you live or die or what physician you can see? Don’t forget that Obamacare failed.
The cost will be trillions and trillions of dollars to execute the Green New Deal. Sorry, but my piggy bank is broke. Cortez’ claims are unsupported by scientific evidence, and makes demands for every benefit imaginable, but has no way to build or pay for any of it.
And wait . . . there’s more. Too much more to cover in this letter.
“The kind of man who wants the government to adopt and enforce his ideas is always the kind of man whose ideas are idiotic.” -H.L. Mencken, Minority Report
Len Calderone
Midway