The Green New Deal creates victims and points blame

The Green New Deal apparently is the Democrat's far-reaching plan to frame the 2020 Presidential election by promising something for every imaginable victim's group in America.

Unveiled last week to much hoopla, the progressive agenda is a virtual wish list of liberal ideas that would make today's America unrecognizable.

The plan is billed as a solution to climate change, but it's really about social engineering.

The 10-year plan calls for the elimination of fossil fuels including massive high speed rails to replace air travel.

But that's just for starters. Medicare for all -- despite a $34 trillion price tag -- is also part of the plan.

And to broaden their appeal, the advocates of this new deal also call for guaranteed jobs for all Americans "with a family-sustaining wage, adequate family and medical leave, paid vacations and retirement security."

And not to be overlooked is the plan's goal of upgrading all existing buildings in the United States for energy efficiency.

Now, I don't want to throw water on the Utopian plan, but there are two important ingredients missing from the Democrat progressive plan.

The plan includes no details on just how these changes would occur, and there are no details on the cost of this misguided agenda.

Yet like so many other progressive proposals, the Green New Deal offers no real solutions but rather empty promises that play well to an uninformed population.

Instead of offering lofty and unreachable promises, the Democrats might consider a progressive agenda that includes plans to reduce government dependency for nearly half our population.

Instead of expanding government spending on eliminating air travel or the jobs guarantee, perhaps the Democrats would be better served curbing abuses in our entitlement programs and holding all Americans accountable to those personal responsibilities that form the foundation of our great nation.

As the always eloquent House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said, "The green dream or whatever they call it, nobody knows what it is, but they're for it, right?"

The sponsors of this radical proposal know full well it stands no chance of passage. But passage is not their goal.

The goal is to continue dividing this nation with empty promises that pit the producers against the downtrodden.

To create victims, you first have to point blame. And then you dangle the promise of free health care and guaranteed jobs. Throw in free college education for all and you have the perfect trifecta of this emerging progressive agenda.

The Democrats can't run on the economy because it appears the economic engine of America is running at full speed.

The Democrats can't run on foreign policy since this administration has restored our standing in the world.

So what's left is this absurd idea to douse the fire that fuels our progress and replace it with this socialist dream.

All that's missing from the plan is reparations. But that's likely to surface somewhere along the way.

Michael Jensen is the publisher of the Standard Democrat in Sikeston, Missouri.