Senator Bernie Sanders and the Bankruptcy of His Socialistic Green New Deal

Senator Bernie Sanders and his acolytes are confirmed democratic socialists. What is their vision of democratic socialism, which history tells us is an oxymoron? Senator Sanders in a 2015 speech described his socialism: “I don’t believe the government should take over the corner store down the street or own the means of production, but I do believe that the middle class and the working families who produce the wealth of America deserve a decent standard of living and that their incomes should go up, not down, I do believe in private companies that thrive and invest and grow in America, companies that create jobs here, rather than companies that are shutting down in America and increasing their profits by exploiting low-wage labor overseas.” The Senator has proposed a green energy plan that he thinks would convert America to energy efficiency and sustainability, but would cripple capitalism, bankrupt the nation, and replace “democratic” with coercion along the way. He looked to the Tennessee Valley Authority of the New Deal as his model. The TVA was created to bring electricity to the rural masses in the Tennessee Valley, and much of Appalachia. The TVA serves parts of Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, Mississippi, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia. The TVA output would be hydroelectricity, flood control, Navigation control, fertilizer production, agriculture, and overall economic development. The Senator, who honeymooned in the Soviet Union, is living in a dreamworld of nostalgia for a TVA and world that never existed. TVA has been an environmental disaster with tremendous environmental contamination and pollution. The TVA dammed up the Tennessee Valley, ran out of sites, and then turned to fossil fuels and nuclear. Nuclear generates about 40% of TVA’s electricity. Bernie wants to end nuclear generation. Coal produces 20% of TVA’s energy and natural gas 10%. Bernie wants to terminate fossil fuel production. Way to go Bernie! He wants to eliminate 70% of TVA’s generating capacity. As usual. Bernie’s idealistic ignorance shows. He lives in a dream world. Good by to gas engines. So much for jet airplanes. Say goodbye to Hawaii. Airplane jet engines could run on biofuels, which are carbon fuels that haven’t yet become fossils. He wants all power by renewable sources. Nuclear, which generates 19% of America’s electricity, is not a renewable. Say goodbye to nuclear. 100% renewables by 2030. Renewables are great, except when the sun doesn’t shine and the wind doesn’t blow. Solar eats up land. Windmills need steel and cement, both dependent on coal in their manufacture. Hybrids and electric cars need electricity to run. Neither solar nor wind can supply it. Complete decarbonization by 2050. He proposes to nationalize the renewable energy system, which means the production of electricity nationally – without nuclear, hydro, or fossil fuels. What do you do with the carbon dioxide exhaled by 7 billion people on Planet Earth? His solution is abortion in the Third World – aborting blown, black, and yellow babies. We call that genocide. Not many places are left in America for major hydroelectricity production, unless he plans to dam the Grand Canyon. He also said fossil fuel executives should be criminally prosecuted for the destruction they have knowingly caused. This is the act of third world dictators and communist societies. Venezuela’s Humberto Madero jailed oil execs and replaced managers with hacks. Venezuela is a living socialist tragedy. Bernie doesn’t see it. He’s blind to reality. He says the Soviet Union and Venezuela are not examples of failed socialism because they are not socialistic, but dictatorial. He wants to jail the executives who have brought cheap, legal energy to America. He proposed a federal takeover of “the whole thing.” “You can’t nibble around the edges.” All in for nationalizing America’s energy production. But not fracking, which has given America energy independence. But not offshore drilling, which is a reliable source of oil. Of course, he wants to eliminate fossil fuels, so it doesn’t matter. He claims his plan would produce 20 million jobs. The reality is that we would be living on rationed electricity. That doesn’t work on hot humid days or freezing cold nights. He claims his plan would create 20 million union jobs. His plan would lay off tens of thousands of highly paid unionized coal miners, oil and gas workers. He would convert them to solar installers. He will pay for his pie in the sky Green New Deal by large taxes on corporate polluters and fossil fuel polluters. He promised five years of salaries and benefits to laid off fossil fuel workers. That’s guaranteed to increase the opioid crisis in Appalachia. His estimated Green New Deal cost is $16 trillion dollar, which he claims will pay for itself within 15 years.s. The current federal budget is $4 trillion. China produces twice the CO2 emissions of the United States. Not a peep from the democratic socialists of cutting back China’s rising CO2 emissions. U.S. emissions have been dropping and now back to the levels of two decades ago. The world’s are rising while ours are dropping. Destroying our economy will not solve the problems of climate warming. His Green Energy Plan defies his statement of what socialism means to him. He’s as naive as the Bolsheviks who seized power a century ago on October 24-25, 1919. The laws of economics and physics would send America back to the Dark Ages if he succeeds. He won’t and we won’t.