Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez And Seth Meyers Talk Green New Deal And It’s As Bad As You Expect

March 22, 2019

If you listened to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Late Night with Seth Meyers last night, you’d think the late night host was on Ocasio-Cortez’s payroll.

Meyers called her socialist “Green New Deal” a “really exciting” plan and refused to challenge Ocasio-Cortez on any of the facts, no matter how blatantly false.

For instance, Meyers briefly asked Ocasio-Cortez about the allegation that her plan mentioned eliminating farting cows.

“One of the things we’re even hearing the President say is that you would outlaw cows, cows farting that would be out…any of that true at all?” asked Seth Meyers.

“No,” Ocasio-Cortez responded.

And that was that. The audience was lead to think that AOC was being fully transparent and the attacks against her were just plain silly.

We don’t expect the highest level of scrutiny from late night show hosts, but it only takes a little common sense to see through this plan.

Ocasio-Cortez’s own office put out a memo the day the Green New Deal was released, which made clear that decreasing cow farting was part of the solution. As the Washington Examiner explains, “One FAQ made available to NPR claimed the bill’s aim is to lower fossil fuel emissions to ‘net-zero, rather than zero emissions, in 10 years because we aren’t sure that we’ll be able to fully get rid of farting cows and airplanes that fast.’”

Has Ocasio-Cortez completely forgotten what her own office sent to NPR? Or is she deliberately misleading people?

The confusion comes because Ocasio-Cortez, after her summary of the plan received so much scrutiny, attempted to change and obfuscate what the intentions of the plan really were. She tried to walk back the cows comment among others since the rollout was botched so thoroughly, but it is clear from the initial announcement and summary of the plan that “farting cows” are in her sights.

Ocasio-Cortez, responding to critics, also said, “They’re trying to say that the Green New Deal is about what we have to give up, what we have to cut back on. When in fact the Green New Deal itself is a resolution to be more expansive.”

This is preposterous. Without stable electric grids, of course Americans would have to “cut back” on energy usage. With higher energy prices causing higher prices for everyday goods and services, of course we’d have to cut back.

It’s basic economics.

But for Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Seth Meyers, basic economics makes bad television.