The Week: February 25, 2019

Some Greens, namely Howie Hawkins, have accused the congresswoman of appropriating the Green New Deal — a bold new plan introduced by Ocasio-Cortez that calls for the U.S. to run on 100 percent renewable energy by 2030.

"A lot of people think [Ocasio-Cortez] thought it up," Hawkins told The New Republic. "But I'm the original Green New Dealer."

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The Green Party would like a word with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.).

Some Greens, namely Howie Hawkins, have accused the congresswoman of appropriating the Green New Deal — a bold new plan introduced by Ocasio-Cortez that calls for the U.S. to run on 100 percent renewable energy by 2030.

"A lot of people think [Ocasio-Cortez] thought it up," Hawkins told The New Republic. "But I'm the original Green New Dealer."

Hawkins is referring to a plan he presented when he ran for New York governor in 2010, which proposed to fight climate change "with the same urgency ... that our country demonstrated in converting to war production" during World War II. The Green Party now has a separate Green New Deal.

Hawkins, who is considering running for the Green Party presidential nomination, did say he was happy that Ocasio-Cortez has helped some of the Green Party's ideas reach the mainstream, but added that the Democrats' version of Green New Deal is a watered down version of the Greens', which includes calls for single-payer Medicare-for-all, tuition-free college, and "democratically run, publicly owned facilities."

Dario Hunter, another potential Green Party presidential candidate, accused Democrats of touting "cafeteria socialism" where they only select certain elements of the political ideology that could help their campaigns. If lawmakers like Ocasio-Cortez are "ultimately still allowing for capitalist interests to run amok," said Hunter, "then you are not a socialist. You're just running on a platform that draws people in falsely." Read more at The New Republic. Tim O'Donnell