Part of the Democrats' Green New Deal agenda will rely on the original New Deal. President Biden and Democrats are now proposing a massive Civilian Climate Corps program that would employ thousands on 'green' projects like retrofitting homes, installing solar panels, or restoring coastal habitats. The proposal is based on a New Deal-era program enacted by President Franklin Roosevelt in the 1930s.
While President Biden's climate actions have already eliminated thousands of private sector jobs, this one would vastly expand the public sector. Biden has included the program in a spending bill Democrats plan to try and pass with a simple majority under budget reconciliation, so they can do it without any Republican support. "The Biden administration loves using big government to push for a radical, extreme agenda that wouldn't otherwise get passed through the Congress or the Senate," says Vlad Davidiuk, Houston-based Republican strategist. "Biden is looking backwards to Lyndon Johnson and Franklin Roosevelt for ways to grow government and to expand the power of the left."
"Democrats and the left are flat out of ideas, they don't have anything new to offer," he continues. "So they're remixing and rehashing old, failed ideas and hoping to pawn them off as new solutions."
The cost of the program remains up in the air, but it will be pricey. Biden has allocated $10 billion, but more liberal lawmakers like Sen. Edward Markey (D-MA) and Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) have called for spending well over $100 billion on the climate corps. They see this as the first step in a massive government expansion under the guise of fighting climate change.
"This is definitely part of a means to achieve the radical left's agenda for a Green New Deal," says Davidiuk.