Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) on Tuesday brought posters depicting babies, a Star Wars creature, Aquaman and one of former President Reagan firing a machine gun while riding a dinosaur to argue against the Green New Deal as lawmakers debated the proposal in the Senate.
“Critics might quibble with this depiction of a climactic battle of the Cold War because, while awesome, in real life, there was no climactic battle. There was no battle with, or without, velociraptors,” Lee said.
{mosads}Lee argued that the picture was just as relevant to the Cold War as he believes the proposed Green New Deal would be to solving climate change.
“This image has as much to do with overcoming communism in the 20th century as the Green New Deal has to do with overcoming climate change in the 21st,” he said, calling the progressive proposal “ridiculous.”
The Green New Deal legislation, introduced by Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) in the Senate and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) in the House would move the country toward using only renewable energy and create environmentally friendly jobs.
The velociraptor poster was one of several Lee brought in to illustrate his point.
“This is the real solution to climate change: babies,” he said, as a poster with six babies on it was put up next to him.
“More people mean bigger markets for more innovation,” he said. “American babies, in particular, are likely going to be wealthier, better educated and more conservation-minded.”
Ocasio-Cortez shot back at Lee for his use of the posters, tweeting, “GOP Senators are using their Congressional allowances to print Aquaman posters for themselves to argue that a #GreenNewDeal saving our nation from climate change is a ‘waste of money.’ ”
“If this guy can be Senator, you can do anything,” she added.