Tuesday, May 21, 2019

Yasmin Tayag — How Do You Pay for the Green New Deal? Ask Andrés Bernal

The House of Representatives didn’t know what hit it.

The Green New Deal, introduced by Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in February, energized politicians on both sides of the political spectrum with its twin goals of carbon neutrality by 2030 and the promise of jobs for every American. It also polarized them. Critics have one main question: How the hell are we going to pay for it?
As the guy responsible for the plan’s “jobs guarantee,” Andrés Bernal, 32, has a lot to answer for. And he’s more than happy to. The Colombia-born, Texas-raised advisor to Ocasio-Cortez spends most of his time thinking about the people who need that kind of job security and how to pay their salaries. In fact, he’s one of them.

When he’s not advising the most galvanizing congresswoman on the planet on progressive economics, he’s a Ph.D. candidate and lecturer of urban studies at Queens College in New York City, making him part of one of America’s most notoriously underprotected workers’ groups....

The next generation is rising up and they are energized.

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