Green With... Laughter?

Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez launches her Intersectional Environmentalism proposal to de-carbonize the US economy and solve every social problem within ten years.

Megan Mcardle, David Harsanyi and Jon Chait wack the pinata. I'll give Megan props for the best headline:

‘We’re nuts!’ isn’t a great pitch for a Green New Deal

But this proposal, and especially the accompanying (and withdrawn) fact sheet isn't merely ludicrously ambitious and devoid of common sense (Eliminate air travel?!? Retrofit "every" building in America?!?). It also reveals a stunning absence of basic knowledge of history and public finance.

One wonders whether Ms. AOC actually has the time and temperament to collaborate with experts and study an issue (yet another reason she is the Trump of the left!). Or did Democratic leadership cut her loose and send the real Washington hands off on other projects? Let her primary herself!

On to specifics. This passage on how the extreme environmental makeover might be financed may have sounded great in a college dorm. A freshman dorm. But this is a frightening level of ignorance about the structure, legal authorities, independence and role of the Federal Reserve when it comes from a Congressperson as part of a legislative package (my emphasis):

How will you pay for it?

The same way we paid for the New Deal, the 2008 bank bailout and extended quantitative easing programs. The same way we paid for World War II and all our current wars. The Federal Reserve can extend credit to power these projects and investments and new public banks can be created to extend credit. There is also space for the government to take an equity stake in projects to get a return on investment. At the end of the day, this is an investment in our economy that should grow our wealth as a nation, so the question isn’t how will we pay for it, but what will we do with our new shared prosperity.

Ah, well, what? The Federal Reserve is an independent entity - it won't be financing this green agenda just because AOC thinks it ought to. As to their legal authority, well, it is widely agreed the Fed can purchase government backed debt. They crept beyond that during the 2008 financial meltdown and used their lending authority to finance parts of the AIG bailout in what was widely perceived as an dire, backs against the wall, emergency meltdown scenario. But it is not at all obvious why an independent Fed would choose to finance these green projects or whether it would be within their legal scope.

Back on the history front, this JFK/Ike/FDR nostalgia is ahistorical nonsense:

Americans love a challenge. This is our moonshot.

When JFK said we’d go to the by the end of the decade, people said impossible.

If Eisenhower wanted to build the interstate highway system today, people would ask how we’d pay for it.

When FDR called on America to build 185,000 planes to fight World War 2, every business leader, CEO, and general laughed at him... At the time, the U.S. had produced 3,000 planes in the last year. By the end of the war, we produced 300,000 planes. That’s what we are capable of if we have real leadership.

One at a time: Kennedy first laid out the man-on-the-moon vision in May 1961. The US was losing the space race to the Soviet Union, which had the first satellite and the first man in space (their legacy rocket program from WWII gave them a head start).

Did people say "impossible"? The relevant Senate Committee unanimously approved funding a few weeks later. Polling was scattered: per Forbes, in 1959 52% thought a man on the moon was doable within 20 years; in early 1961, 65% approved of the attempt. Well, until the price tag was announced: per Wikipedia, 58% opposed the use of funds for that purpose. But "impossible"? Not seeing it.

And Ike? Well, he didn't wait for people to ask how we'd pay for the highway program - he asked Congress to extend the gasoline tax in his original proposal. No, fiscal conservatism wasn't invented last weekend to thwart Green Dreams.

As to FDR, my goodness: his speech calling for a massive rearmament effort was delivered on May 15, 1940, five days after Germany began their invasion of France. The French collapse along the Meuse was well underway, although the public (and possibly Allied military leadership) may not have been fully aware. The Times front page, with the Roosevelt speech in the upper left:

Although AOC is surely hearing laughter today, people were not laughing in May of 1940 (Geez, did she see "Churchill"? "Dunkirk"? How about "Avengers - Infinity War"?). In fact, FDR pressed into service William Knudsen, the head of General Motors, to dial up America's industrial base. Here is how historian Arthur Herman described Knudsen's approach:

“I’m no soldier,” Knudsen told Roosevelt when he got to Washington that May, “But I know if we get into war, the winning of it will be purely a question of material production.” He persuaded FDR that three steps were needed to get America’s businesses and factories ready for getting back to work, and getting ready for war.

The first was to rethink Roosevelt’s own anti-business instincts, and to bring industry leaders into the administration to deal with the production crisis.

The second was to scrap many of the New Deal’s anti-business regulations and tax policies, in order to give businesses an incentive to switch to wartime production and hire workers, retool, and expand their plants.

The third was to take control of the war mobilization process away from Washington bureaucrats and give it to America’s most innovative and productive companies.

That sounds sort of the opposite of the AOC plan to put the government in charge of everything.

Well. Other than showing no grasp of common sense, history or public finance I would say AOC is good to go.

Comments

[MissMarple2]

BNL NEWS
‏ @BreakingNLive
36m36 minutes ago

BREAKING: Lin Wood, a lawyer representing Covington teen Nick Sandmann, who was victim of fake news, confirmed today Native American activist Nathan Phillips “will be sued for his defamatory lies.”

Nathan Phillips made several claims after the incident, which were untrue.

==========================

Good. That Phillips guy flat-out lied. Said he was trying to put himself betweet Covington kids and the Black Hebrews. Said that the kids were yelling "Build the wall" when they said no such thing. Other stuff, too, but those two I remembered.

That Phillips is a con artist and needs to be set back on his heels.

[boris]

ooooonay eadthray

[henry]

“Ghost species” in the tree:

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/artificial-intelligence-study-human-genome-finds-unknown-human-ancestor-species-180971436/#ppY5jy9gT2zYRh6U.99

[Jack is Back!]

nenry,

True but every analyst has to note whether they own it or not. The ones I hear do not own it.

sbw,

I guess that is why NFLX gained 2.86 to close at $347.58, just off their jhigh of $348:-) Someone is going to jump off buildings when it crashes and burns.

[sbwaters]

JiB, If I recall, Disney had pulled its content library from Netflix, had access to ESPN sports, and was also producing new content.

[peter]

Phillips is likely judgment proof so it is a Pyrrhic exercise I guess.

[peter]

Henry, that Smithsonian website you linked to has a completely BS article about the Chappaquiddick movies. Double talk to the nth degree.

[Rocco]

AOC caught in a big lie, claims the Green New Deal doc is a forgery that conservatives have been circulating. Remember that meta data hidden in the pics and docs we post? Nailed her!

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2019/02/huge-alexandria-ocasio-cortez-caught-in-major-lie-claims-green-new-deal-document-from-her-own-website-is-a-fake/

[peter]

Duke hits 6 out of 7 three pointers, up by nine over UVA. Ugh!