A new cost estimate of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s “Green New Deal” has been made, this time tallying $93 trillion in spending necessary to complete all aspects of the plan. The estimate was made by Douglas Holtz-Eakin, and the American Action Forum. The executive summary of their findings states:
The Green New Deal (GND) is a sweeping policy plan setting out ambitious objectives for energy and economic policy. The breadth of its proposals makes it daunting to assess the GND using the standard tools of policy analysis. Nevertheless, this short paper is an initial foray. We have three broad conclusions:
- The GND’s proposed goals, “mobilization,” and specific policy projects encompass social and institutional changes far exceeding the narrow policy goals, but these changes are impossible to quantify at this point;
- Many of the policies proposed in the GND are redundant with other aspects in it, which also complicates a precise analysis, as the interactions are difficult to predict; and
- The GND will be very expensive – our initial estimates for the tractable aspects (best thought of as estimating the order of magnitude) are summarized below.
Summary Table(2020-2029) Goal Estimated Cost Estimated Cost Per Household Low-carbon Electricity Grid $5.4 trillion $39,000 Net Zero Emissions Transportation System $1.3 trillion to $2.7 trillion $9,000 to $20,000 Guaranteed Jobs $6.8 trillion to $44.6 trillion $49,000 to $322,000 Universal Health Care $36 trillion $260,000 Guaranteed Green Housing $1.6 trillion to $4.2 trillion $4,000 to $12,000 Food Security $1.5 billion $10
America simply cannot afford the Green New Deal, and Democrats were never really serious about it anyway. It is, as Nancy Pelosi called it, a “Green Dream.” The most expensive aspect of the plan is a guaranteed job, with an estimated cost per household of $49,000 to $322,000. That’s more than most American families will make in a year.
Grand centralized plans like the Green New Deal never work. Market forces will undoubtedly find better ways of accomplishing the goals set forth in the authoritarian plan that would seek to control everything from air travel to cow flatulence.
Read more from the American Action Forum’s estimate here.
