Beto O’Rourke’s $5T climate change plan is ‘virtue signaling’: Rep. Matt Gaetz
2020 Democratic presidential candidate and former Texas Congressman Beto O’Rourke has unveiled his first major policy proposal – a $5 trillion plan to address climate change.
The plan is largely derived from executive action and changes to the tax code which he notes will “ensure corporations and the wealthiest among us pay their fair share.”
O’Rourke said that if the federal government can put up $1.5 trillion, it will “mobilize” the private sector to contribute additional spending to combat what he calls the “greatest threat we face.”
Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz (R) told FOX Business he believes such legislation will only hurt the American economy.
“Beto’s problem is that if you raise taxes to pay for his plan, you don’t really need to worry about carbon emissions, because most of the industry in this country will leave,” he said on “Kennedy Monday. “What I think the liberals miss about climate change is that if we just export the pollution to other countries, it’s just virtue signaling, but it doesn’t do anything to help the planet.”
Gaetz said that a plan like his “Green Real Deal” is far more preferable to O’Rourke’s.
His plan calls on the U.S. to modernize its electrical grid, strip regulations on energy companies to spur innovation and protect intellectual property to encourage innovators to move quickly to fight back against climate change.
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“If I’ve got to bet on someone to solve climate change, I’m not betting on an EPA regulator on the 8th floor of a building that’s got no windows, I’m betting on a college kid … trying to whip up a way to make energy more efficient,” Gaetz surmised. “That’s when we’re at our best. Not when we empower government, but we empower people.”