My New Green Deal Plan | Teen Ink

My New Green Deal Plan

March 3, 2019
By Seanbuechele12 BRONZE, Miami Beach, Florida
Seanbuechele12 BRONZE, Miami Beach, Florida
3 articles 0 photos 0 comments

Favorite Quote:
My favorite personal quote is, “It Ain’t How Hard You Hit…It’s How Hard You Can Get Hit and Keep Moving Forward. It's About How Much You Can Take And Keep Moving Forward!” This is by Rocky Balboa and its so true about life you get back up and keep fighting for your dreams. This relates to me a lot because people have told me I will never succeed and I am not smart for trying to go for my passion. So I have to take the punches and keep moving forward.


My name is Sean B. and I am a high school politican in our great nation. Recently, on the news we have seen many U.S representatives talk about the environment and how we need to solve this issue. One is Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, a U.S Representative for New York. She came up with a plan called the New Green Deal and claims in quote, “This is going to be the New Deal, the Great Society, the moon shot, the civil-rights movement of our generation”. Ms. Cortex talks about the nation will be in trouble with climate change in a very short time and should not really care about the cost. In quote,’’The world is gonna end in 12 years if we don’t address climate change and your biggest issue is how are we gonna pay for it?’’. 

In her New Green Deal Plan she proposes that we need to phase out airplane travel, and start investing in new high-speed rail travel. Also in the plan she calls for only electric cars to be produced, and to stop all gasoline cars in the country. The plan also calls for buildings that are not eco-friendly must be teared down and rebuilt to the correct regulations. These ideas are only a small part of the plan and what she wants to do for America in the coming years. The total budget for this plan is going to be 93 trillion dollars, more than the GDP of every country combined. 

Looking only at the cost, there is no reasonable explanation as to how the U.S.A can pay for this and how it will be sustainable for Americans. In a recent interview with Business Insider she said in quote, “The government can spend as much as they like, Inflation is the only obstacle”. What she doesn’t understand is that inflation is a big obstacle and this creates hyperinflation, something that is taught in basic economics classes. Ms. Cortex’s plan doesn’t benefit the American class at all, rather it hurts them. With hyperinflation people will struggle to pay for their groceries and basic necessities. As less and less people buy items and contribute to the market and overall system, the economy goes down which creates problems for all Americans.

Ms. Cortex is not seeing the big picture and doesn’t understand the problems Americans will have if this plan goes through. Also by taking away airplane travel, which contributes to the GDP by 704.4 billion dollars. This will drive down the GDP of the United States. The airline industry creates 10 million jobs a year for Americans. So if this is taken away millions of people would be unemployed, as this happens the unemployment rate goes up.

The only aspect of the plan which I agree with is that we need more electric cars. This is for they are safer for the environment than gasoline cars, other than that idea her deal doesn’t show any positive aspects. In recent news Ms. Cortex says to the people in quote, "Some people are like, 'Oh, it's unrealistic, oh it's fake, oh it doesn't address this little minute thing. And I'm like, 'You try! You do it.' 'Cause you're not. 'Cause you're not. So, until you do it, I'm the boss. How 'bout that?". As you can see Ms. Cortez is acting like she is the boss and thinks that no one is trying to help her. So I am tired of seeing politicians like Ms. Cortez not providing good plans for the overall benefit of the people. That is why I have decided to create my own Green Deal Plan for the nation and hope it can help the American people.

So for my deal, first off, I totally agree that climate change is a real and concerning issue and we need to address it in a serious manner. My deal would start off by taking 5 to 10 percent of the military budget and using it toward the environment and new types of energy sources. In 2018 the United States spent 886 billion dollars on the military, and the number continues to increase. We spend 70 percent of the budget on military defense and 30 percent on foreign aid and veteran aid. So in my plan taking 5 to 10 percent which is between 44 billion dollars to 88.6 billion dollars, can be used to invest in the climate change. 

The United States, by far,  has the strongest military in the world and surpasses everyone in the field. Having 44-88.6 billion dollars to put into saving the planet would be a good idea. This wouldn’t affect the tax payers or average American families. Second, we have to go back into the Paris Climate Agreement which is also a part of Cortex’s plan. Being united with other countries will allow us to make a difference, help the world, and make it a better place. Third, we need to hold huge companies accountable such as Amazon, Apple, Walmart, and Netflix, to start paying their fair share in taxes. Last year Amazon, one of the biggest companies in the world, paid 0 dollars in taxes. This is completely unfair and not just for the rest of the American people. 

By these companies paying taxes we can use that money into research for creating wind and solar energy sources. With this the government wouldn’t have to worry about the coal industry and we can create new jobs from these new types of energy sources. Another part of the plan would be to reduce foreign aid spending, the United States spends upward of 50 billion dollars in foreign aid. The government needs to start focusing on benefiting the American people not other countries. By taking half of the foreign aid spending we can use that to invest in electric cars and scientist to find new wants to make our country cleaner. Lastly, the United States needs to learn how to spend and save our money. We are 22 trillion dollars in debt, a number that is not going down. 

If I were in the government I would make a smarter government spending plan in order to refrain from wasting U.S taxpayers’  money. This can be achieved by decreasing the health care budget which is at 1.125 trillion dollars to increasing the eduction budget and create a environmental budget. We need to balance the Federal budget this is a key thing we have to do in the government. Overall my main concern is to focus on the American people and the environmental problems that are happening in this country. We need to act now; politicians rather focus on the present and not look into the long term. What they do not understand is that we need to start investing in the future now before it is to late. 


The author's comments:

For my article you can see how passionate I am about the topic of Climate Change. I want to make this world a better place but also do it in a smart and resonable type manner. In the article you see that I talk only facts and bring data as to how Ms.Cortez plan will not be to effective. I bring in my plan that I though through and think will be good for the nation and will benefit the whole country. I hope my words get the attention of people and what we need to do to help our nation.


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