On the 7^th of February in 2019, freshman New York Congresswoman Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez introduced to the 116^th Congress of the United States H. Res. 109, titled “Recognizing the duty of the Federal Government to create a Green New Deal.” Ever since that day a new boogeyman looms over the national discourse. The idea of the Green New Deal spread like a global warming induced wildfire and every politically inclined American has heard the term by now. But what exactly is the Green New Deal, what was in H. Res. 109 that made it so scary? Are the fears and claims about the bill truly warranted or is it all hyperbole? Should we adopt it?

Res 109 is a rather short document, only 14 pages in length and written with such large margins that if a student used it, they would automatically fail. The document starts off referencing a prior study by an intergovernmental agency on the negative repercussions of climate change – here’s where we get the Green. It goes further and references other crises that are affecting our nation: erosion of the working class, wealth inequality, and here’s where we get the New Deal. The remainder of the document contains a variety of programs that are to address these social crises.

Now, the first and probably the most important thing about the Green New Deal is that it is a nonbinding resolution. It does absolutely nothing to address the crises it lays out. A nonbinding resolution is not completely meaningless; it is at the very least an acknowledgement that these problems exist and that we need to address them somehow. The resolution also plainly states that “it is the duty of the Federal Government to create a Green New Deal” so it is expected that more will follow if the resolution were to have been adopted.

Those who oppose the resolution have made a variety of claims about what it will do. President Trump is a vocal critic and has repeatedly made rather wild claims about the bill. “I mean they literally want to take buildings down and rebuild them with tiny little windows, little windows so you can’t see the light, you can’t see out.” At the second presidential debate he said “The Green New Deal is a hundred trillion dollars.” He has also taken aim at Representative Ocasio-Cortez herself, claiming that the deal was made “by not smart people — AOC plus three.” Of course, Trump is not the only one to make rather wild claims. Senator Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) claimed the bill would confiscate cars while Senator John Barrasso (R-Wyoming) claims that the bill will ban livestock. Of course, the bill will do none of these things. However, opponents of the bill have come to criticize its price tag and this criticism sticks.

The fact of the matter is that the bill makes wide ranging recommendations and ideas on how to address the social ills facing our nation, but it does not offer any price tags for the programs within. When we look at the historic New Deal, it cost somewhere to the tune of 700 billion dollars when converted to today’s dollars. However, it was also forty percent of the nation’s economic output in 1929. Forty percent of our national output in 2019 would be over 8 trillion dollars. Wherever the actual cost of the program may be, it will be a lot.

However, that should not stop us from adopting the program. The fact of the matter is that the negative repercussions of climate change will cost much more than the price tag of a Green New Deal. Further, the Federal government was able to authorize and distribute more than five trillion dollars in Coronavirus relief over the course of a single year. We as a nation should be more than capable of funding the Green New Deal when it is a decades long program that will have tangible economic benefits. Failure to address climate change will doom us much worse than debt will.

Mohamad Amin is a Guyanese-born Queens resident who is currently a senior at Hunter College. He is majoring in Economics with a certificate in Public Policy and is researching the effects that automation and other advancing technologies will have upon the employment in America. Mohamad has previously interned at the office of the late New York State Senator Jose Peralta, working in some of the most diverse neighborhoods in New York. He has spent the last two years employed at the Queens Chamber of Commerce, where he has worked to bridge the gap between local small business owners and available city services. After graduation, Mohamad intends to enter the workforce and continue building upon his experiences.