Ocasio-Cortez Fires Back at Feinstein Over Green New Deal

Politicians such as the California senator have been 'failing' for '30 or 40 years' on climate change, young lawmaker declared

By Kathryn Blackhurst | February 25, 2019

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) took a swipe at Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) on Sunday after the elder senator criticized the radical Green New Deal proposal.

Many progressives harshly criticized Feinstein  after a viral video surfaced showing her lecturing kids and young people affiliated with the Sunrise Movement — who touted the Green New Deal.

Feinstein expressed doubts about the radical proposal that would cost trillions in taxpayer dollars.

She told the small group of kids, “I’ve been doing this for 30 years. I know what I’m doing.”

“You come in here, and you say it has to be my way or the highway. I don’t respond to that,” Feinstein added. “I’ve gotten elected. I just ran. I was elected by almost a million-vote plurality. And I know what I’m doing. So you know, maybe people should listen a little bit.”

Ocasio-Cortez retaliated by delivering a lecture of her own during an Instagram livestream.

The young lawmaker addressed her followers as she prepared chili.

“The issue has gotten worse. So I don’t think that working on an issue for 30 years alone is what qualifies — as what makes someone qualified to solve an issue,” she said in an apparent swipe at Feinstein.

“That said, there are a lot of people that have been doing this work for decades that have proposed ambitious solutions for years and have not been listened to,” Ocasio-Cortez added. “So, it’s not just ‘I’ve been doing this for 30 years’ — so we need to listen to them. Because frankly people have been failing at the same things for 30 or 40 years.”

The New York Democrat insisted Americans must ask themselves, “What solutions have not been tried yet, and what ambitious scale have we not shot at yet?”

Related: Kamala Harris Not Worried About the Cost of Green New Deal

“Because if you think that a carbon tax alone and no other intervention is going to fix climate change, you’re part of the problem,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “We have one shot. Because we could have had three, four, five shots at this. But to be very frank, people didn’t try.”

Since people like Feinstein “didn’t try,” people “are dying in the thousands,” Ocasio-Cortez said.

“And I’m just not here to listen to this … belief that is not grounded in reality,” she also warned, saying that “climate delayers are the new climate deniers.”

Ocasio-Cortez also suggested that having children is unethical today — because “there’s scientific consensus that the lives of children are going to be very difficult.”

“And it does lead young people to have a legitimate question: Is it OK to still have children?” Ocasio-Cortez asked.

Ocasio-Cortez also apparently feels Democrats and Americans at large should listen to her because “I’m the boss” until politicians address climate change.

Related: Here’s How Ocasio-Cortez Plans to Pay for Her Green New Deal

The congresswoman made that remark during a “Girls Who Code” event in New York City on Friday.

“So people are like, ‘Oh it’s unrealistic. Oh it’s vague. Oh it doesn’t address this little minute thing,'” Ocasio-Cortez said. “And I’m like, ‘You try. You do it. ‘Cause you’re not. ‘Cause you’re not. So, until you do it, I’m the boss.’ How about that?”

Several 2020 Democratic presidential contenders are backing Ocasio-Cortez’s Green New Deal, despite its staggering projected cost and requirement for a massive systemic overhaul.

Check out more in the video below:

This piece originally appeared in LifeZette and is used by permission.

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