Brian Babin: “I thank my colleague from Arizona for yielding. I rise today, Mr. Speaker, in strong opposition to H. Res. 109, the…”

“I thank my colleague from Arizona for yielding. I rise today, Mr. Speaker, in strong opposition to H. Res. 109, the Green New Deal. This resolution is nothing short of a socialistic takeover of our energy, our transportation, and our agricultural industries that aims to change every single aspect of our lives, including how Americans eat, travel, stay warm, build their homes, and even what jobs we take. As a fiscal conservative, I believe that the Green New Deal is entirely irresponsible. Recently, our national debt exceeded $22 trillion, and we have no realistic plan for paying that off. The Green New Deal would add trillions more to our debt, while simultaneously destroying the American economy. It would also transfer tremendous costs onto the taxpayers, a total of $93 trillion over 10 years. For example, every home and every building would need to be retrofitted at the cost of $2.5 trillion over the next decade. Additionally, the Green New Deal's stated goal is to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions in that same timeframe, which will cost the taxpayer $11 trillion. Our current tax base could not support this catastrophic level of new spending. Therefore, taxes will need to be raised on every single American and business, inflicting massive damage on our economy due to the loss in take-home pay for the average family and resulting in job losses in the private sector.…”