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New post: "Reality check: Cost of Green New Deal would dwarf moon landing, highway system, and New Deal itself" washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/realit…
There's a popular line of argument that if we went to the moon, did the New Deal, built the highway system, we can do the Green New Deal. This ignores reality that GND would be far more costly & that we have less financial flexibility than in those eras washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/realit…
Though there's no comprehensive cost analysis of the GND, even a few provisions bring its likely cost to tens of trillions of dollars. By comparison, moon landing, highway system, and even New Deal itself were much smaller washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/realit…
The entire cost of the Apollo moon program was about $225 billion in today's dollars. That wouldn't even cover the one year cost of the GND's federal job guarantee washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/realit…
At the peak of the interstate highway program, the federal government spent about one half of 1% of GDP on highways in one year. That would be the equivalent of $113 billion in today's GDP. washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/realit…
The New Deal cost $653 billion in 2009 dollars. Even using a higher estimate, based on fact that it was 40% of GDP in 1929, you get to $8 trillion translated to today's GDP. That's 1/4 the cost of "Medicare for all." washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/realit…
World War II is the only thing that comes close to GND. However, while at peak defense spending had reached 37% of GDP, once war was over, it went down to 3.5% in 1948. GND imposes massive permanent spending obligations washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/realit…
Another important bit of context: During New Deal, WWII, interstate highway system, moon project, entitlements were much smaller so we had more flexibility. Now debt is entering unprecedented levels before a penny is spent on any GND. washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/realit…
Green New Deal FAQ: "If Eisenhower wanted to build the interstate highway system today, people would ask how we’d pay for it." Federal Highway Administration's website: "Legislation failed in 1955 because of the financing issue." washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/realit…
