Sunday on CNN’s “Inside Politics,” Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) argued the United States could afford the trillions of dollars the Green New Deal could cost taxpayers.
CNN’s John King asked, “If you talk to Democratic voters, they’re hungry, and they want ideas. So you’ll hear things like the Green New Deal. You’ll hear things like Medicare for all. You hear things whether it’s taxed at what point do you say that’s our north star, but we have to be realists?”
Harris said, “There’s no question we have to be practical. But being practical also recognizes that climate change is an existential threat to us as human beings. Being practical recognizes that greenhouse gas emissions are threatening our air and threatening the planet and that it is well within our capacity as human beings to change our behaviors in a way that we can reduce its effects. That’s practical.”
King asked, “Can we afford it?”
Harris said, “Of course we can afford it,”
King said, “Two-and-a-half trillion dollars, $3 trillion for Medicare for all by some studies. Depending on which portions of the Green New Deal you choose to do first, that’s money. You know what Republicans are going to say, ‘tax and spend liberals, pie in the sky.'”
Harris said, “It’s not about a cost. It’s about an investment. And the question should be, is it worth the cost in terms of the investment potential? Are we going to get back more than we put in?”
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN