A $10 billion, 1.5-million strong Civilian Climate Corps is being proposed by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., as progressives push their climate-change agenda and Green New Deal.
But getting Republicans in the Senate to support the government paying 1.5 million climate activists figures to be a tall order, according to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said, Fox News reported.
"A diverse and equitable group of 1.5 million Americans over five years will complete federally funded projects that help communities respond to climate change and transition to a clean economy," the lawmakers wrote in a release announcing the plans last month. "Civilian Climate Corps work will reduce carbon emissions, enable a transition to renewable energy, build healthier and more resilient communities, implement conservation projects with proven climate benefits, and help communities recover from climate disasters."
This is the Green New Deal version of the New Deal-era Civilian Conservation Corps, established during the Great Depression that provided the unemployed jobs in the conservation and environmental sector.
It will be run under the Corporation for National and Community Service, the government agency that runs AmeriCorps, and will prioritize infrastructure for crumbling Black and minority communities long led by Democrats.
"What we're going to do is make sure communities like Flint, Baltimore, the South Bronx, St. Louis, rural communities whose infrastructure was never properly built in the first place, are first in line to rectify the injustices of the past and make sure they get everything they need to thrive in the future," AOC told reporters Monday alongside Sen. Markey.
The plan will be tacked on President Joe Biden's American Jobs Plan, a Markey aide told Fox News, and 50% of the funding will be reserved "environmental justice" and another 10% for tribal communities.
"To combat the interlocking crises of the moment — climate change, racial injustice, a global pandemic, and income inequality — our government has an opportunity to equitably reimagine an idea from the past and tailor it to meet the present and the future," Markey wrote in a statement. "The Civilian Climate Corps will provide an opportunity for millions of Americans from every walk of life to earn a good wage while serving their communities and training to transform our economy.
"Rebuilding and strengthening our neighborhoods — especially those that have been devastated by climate change and racist housing and healthcare policies — and supporting our labor force must be our highest priority in the months and years to come."
In addition to have already passing $1.9 trillion in a third coronavirus stimulus package, President Biden is proposing $2.3 trillion in infrastructure called the American Jobs Plan and another $1.8 trillion for the American Families Plan.
Biden's plan to pay for the social programs will be to increase taxes, namely raising the corporate tax rate from 21% to 28%, hike the capital gains tax and increase taxes on the wealthy, which will cool off a heating up economy and stagnate growth, Trump-era economists Larry Kudlow and Stephen Moore argue.
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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