Welcome to Front Porch Politics Podcast. Discussion on the porch this week includes Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the Green New Deal, and Socialism in America. You will not want to miss podcast 38!











AOC and Her Ideas for America



Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has unleashed her new idea for America this week with the New Green Deal. Part of this New Green Features plans such as 70% taxes, elimination of cow farts, and rebuilding every building in the United States. If that is not zany enough for you there is more to this law. In the 2019 hashtag infested, Climate change world we live in there is much, much more.



The Socialist Ideology



Let us begin by stating some facts about Ms. Ocasio-Cortez. She has stated that people working in multiple jobs make the unemployment rate low. Out of 154 million job holder, only 4% are working 2 full-time jobs. She compares this to people working in New York City so let’s begin there. The lowest, non-tipped, wage in New York is $13.50 an hour. According to Ms. Cortez, someone working her claim of 80 hours a week is making a minimum of $1,080.



Those figures are based on having two full-time jobs at 40 hours each. If the employee is working 80 hours at one full-time job they would be eligible for overtime pay which is $20.25 an hour over 40 hours. Which is a net of $1,350 each week. Recently she stated, “it’s sad someone can’t feed their kids working 100 hours a week.” She goes on to state, “A lot of people are more concerned about being preciously factually and semantically correct than about being morally right.”



The End of the World Scare Tactic



Ocasio-Cortez has stated the end of the world is coming in 12 years. Her idea to solve all the problems economically and in the climate is the New Green Deal. Her strategy would require the phaseout of all combustion engines, i.e. gas-powered, by 2030. If you had a car before this time frame you would have to have your car retrofitted to run on battery power. That’s roughly 260 million vehicles in the United Staes. Think of that cost!



Other parts of the Green New Deal include a Federal Job guarantee. This, of course, is required to give “a liveable wage” health care, and retirement benefits. This is based on a marginal tax rate. To make a long story short, if someone is making over $10 million for every $1 earned they would make 30 cents. Then is the Medicare Tax of 2.35%. Couple with New York city and state taxes, the tax rate would be 85.04%. In other words, you earn $1, you get to keep 15 cents.



The issues with this are the numbers. If you implemented this tax rate it would only generate $72 billion dollars a year. To compare a Medicare for all plan old cost at a minimum $3.26 trillion dollars a year. Far below the amount gained by taxing the “rich.” When asked about how to pay for this Ocasio-Cortez replied, “No one is saying how will we pay for Space Force.” The estimated cost by-the-way is $3 billion dollars over a five year period.



The Bernie Sanders effect.



Bernie Sanders proposed a tax plan that would pay for the programs he was promoting. The analysis concluded that it would raise taxes on anyone making under $250,000 at a minimum of 8.8%. So ask yourself, do you want to pay 8% more in taxes each year? I thought she was concerned with only raising taxes o...