Move over Marine Corps, AOC calls for 1.5 million-strong ‘Climate Corps’

The sweeping Green New Deal bill backed by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and other radical left Democratic lawmakers who call themselves progressives — some, like AOC, come right out and admit that they are socialist — includes plans for the creation of a 1.5 million-strong “Civilian Climate Corps.”

Given how militant some environmentalists have been, should the U.S. Marine Corps be concerned about the competition?

The last time we heard of forming a civilian force was from former President Barack Obama, which was passed off as a call to increase the Peace Corps and the size of the Foreign Service — though it came off as something far more sinister.

“We cannot continue to rely on our military to achieve the national security objectives that we’ve set,” Obama said ahead of the 2008 election. “We have got to have a civilian national security force that’s just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded.”

Two years after its debut, the Green New Deal was re-introduced two weeks ago, with Ocasio-Cortez joined by Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass. The lawmakers spoke about green jobs, social justice, and the Civilian Climate Corps.

President Joe Biden included the corps in his $2 trillion American Jobs Plan, calling for investments in training and $15 per hour union dues-paying jobs with health care coverage and other benefits like child care and counseling.

Fox News reported that the CCC “would fall under the purview of the Corporation for National and Community Service, an independent government agency that also runs AmeriCorps and other national service initiatives.”

Corps members would receive on-the-job training and work to help “reduce carbon emissions, enable a transition to renewable energy, build healthier and more resilient communities, implement conservation projects with proven climate benefits, and help communities recover from climate disasters,” according to a Markey press release.

“The CCC would put 1.5 million young people to work strengthening our communities and preserving our lands – doing everything from remediating blight and maintaining trails to creating entirely new green spaces,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “The program also provides the support needed to turn this work into a career path – including childcare, eldercare and tax-free educational grants to be used for student loan debt payments or higher education. Americans across the political spectrum support the CCC – now we need to ensure the program is funded at a scale to reach every community.”

Harkening back to FDR, Sen. Chris Coons, D-Conn., spoke on the CCC last month.

“Eighty-eight years ago, President Roosevelt tapped into the power of national service to address the unemployment crisis caused by the Great Depression and restore our environment when he created the Civilian Conservation Corps,” Coons said “Now, as our country faces the COVID-19 pandemic and the threats posed by climate change, we have another opportunity to address both challenges simultaneously. The Civilian Climate Corps Act will provide opportunities for people across the country to help the most vulnerable communities prepare for the impacts of climate change.”

More from the Huffington Post on what to expect:

It would take on a much more expansive portfolio, including installing solar panels and wind turbines, maintaining public transit systems, and retrofitting homes and buildings to be more energy efficient. It would offer Medicare health coverage, child care stipends and partnerships with labor unions to provide pre-apprenticeship education to enlistees.

 

“What we’re going to do is make sure communities like Flint, Baltimore, the South Bronx, St. Louis, rural communities whose infrastructure was never properly built in the first place, are first in line to rectify the injustices of the past and make sure they get everything they need to thrive in the future,” Ocasio-Cortez told reporters when they introduced the legislation.

The CCC would effectively serve as a massive affirmative action program under the new progressive code word “equity,” not to be confused with “equality.”

At least 50% of the funding is set aside for “environmental justice” communities, this being low-income communities and communities of color that are “disproportionately exposed to pollution and climate-fueled disasters,” as explained by Grist.

Another 10% of funding is set aside for tribal communities.

The plan calls for least 50% of CCC members to be from marginalized communities.

“This is our moment,” Markey declared  in a press conference Monday, according to Mass Live. “We have to have this new army of young Black, Latino, Asian, minority workers in this fight, to ensure that we save our planet. We can save all of creation by investing in massive job creation.”

Speaking of an alleged “groundswell of support” at the press conference, the senator all but said now is the time to shove their progressive agenda down America’s throat.

“There’s a groundswell of popular support for fundamental change in our country, that changed our government and drove Donald Trump back to Mar-a-Lago,” Markey said. “We have to keep our energy levels at a historically high level and organize a network across the United States. We’re not going to agonize, we’re going to organize to fight for these programs.”

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