Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) told Breitbart News that Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was a no-show at a Wednesday panel discussion of her Green New Deal proposal. He also described the Green New Deal as an “anti-capitalist” manifesto pushing “socialism” in a Wednesday interview on SiriusXM’s Breitbart News Tonight with hosts Rebecca Mansour and Joel Pollak.
Mansour said, “You are also the chairman of the Congressional Western Caucus, and I understand that you had a meeting today with the caucus to discuss the Green New Deal and to hear about what the Green New Deal’s impacts would be for western states like Arizona and California. What did you hear today, and what did Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez present to the committee?”
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Gosar replied, “What we did is, we wanted to go into the sphere to start dialoguing with the American people with experts that have specific knowledge about these pieces of legislation, to get into the details, because details are what kill things and destroy things.”
Gosar continued, “So we brought in a bunch of experts from a number of different fields and then invited folks from the other side, like Sierra Club, and even members like Ms. Cortez, herself. Now originally, on Monday night, her staff originally RSVP’d, but by Tuesday, she was not.”
“Now, I’m going to give her the benefit of the doubt, because she sits on Government Oversight and Reform with me,” Gosar said in reference to the fact that the House Oversight and Reform Committee also had a hearing on Wednesday.
“She’s further down the dais than I am,” he continued. “But neither side actually went down the dais, they picked and chose who they wanted to go first and second, so there was plenty of room — and I think — time to come there.”
Gosar explained, “We wanted to start expelling some of the myths behind what is plausible and what is non-science. And it was a very nice debate, having the people come forward, talking about climatology, talking about the changes in the atmosphere with carbon [dioxide] and greenhouse gasses, talking about energy portfolios, talking about health care and the associated costs. So this is a great start. We wanted to make sure we did this in front of the vote that’s coming in the Senate tomorrow, and make sure that we’re putting this out to the American public so they can discern to find out what’s folly and what’s fact.”
Mansour said, “Let me just be clear, you sit on the same [House] Oversight Committee as [Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez], the committee today that was hearing the Cohen testimony. But you were able to do this caucus — this panel discussion — on the Green New Deal, but she was not able to show up to talk about her own bill in this bipartisan setting where you had people [and] experts from both sides, so it’s not like it was hostile. She didn’t show up?”
Gosar responded, “She didn’t show up and neither did the Sierra Club and others. We had a very robust conversation, something that was very — to be honest with you, I manipulated — because of the votes on the floor, but we had the opportunity to have that discussion. It would’ve been a perfect venue to have that civil debate that is missing in Washington, D.C., and in the House.”
Gosar characterized the Green New Deal as a socialistic design akin to Naomi Klein’s call for further centralization of state power to combat “climate change.”
“The real debate is that they’re anti-capitalist,” stated Gosar. “This is their manifesto for socialism. That is plain and simple. What ends up happening with capitalism, what you see in the world today, we have the lowest amount of poverty… People are empowered instead of victimized.”
Gosar added, “That’s what they’re really after. This is what’s behind the manifesto. It is socialism, not capitalism or an entrepreneurial system. It’s about victimization, making people work for the federal government, making them predicate their entire existence on the government.”
Gosar concluded by highlighting Ocasio-Cortez’s Malthusian comments about Americans no longer having children.
“Look at her claim about maybe we shouldn’t be having children. It’s sick,” declared Gosar.
Breitbart News Tonight broadcasts live on SiriusXM Patriot channel 125 weeknights from 9:00 p.m. to midnight Eastern or 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. Pacific.
Follow Robert Kraychik on Twitter @rkraychik.
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