Socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez unveiled her “Green New Deal” Thursday – the same day Netflix announced a deal to buy rights to a documentary featuring the lawmaker for a record $10 million.
The deal, first reported by Deadline, comes after the documentary, “Knock Down the House,” won the “Festival Favorite” award at the Sundance Film Festival last week, Cleveland.com reports.
Netflix reportedly paid $10 million for the rights to stream the flick, though it’s unclear how much, if anything, Ocasio-Cortez stands to collect from the agreement.
“We are thrilled to be partnering with Netflix on the release of ‘Knock Down the House,’” director Rachel Lears said in a prepared statement. “This platform will allow us to reach huge audiences worldwide, including viewers who may not usually watch independent documentaries. We’re also very excited to be working with Netflix on a campaign to spark wider cultural conversations about our democracy and how it can continue to evolve.”
The movie follow Ocasio-Cortez and three other “progressive” female candidates who took on establishment politicians during the midterm elections. Ocasio-Cortez, a 29-year-old former bartender, became the youngest Congresswoman in history when she was elected to replace former Democratic Caucus Chairman Joseph Crowley.
Ocasio-Cortez’s political experience stems from a brief stint as an organizer for socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders during his failed 2016 presidential campaign. She was the only one in the film to win the election.
Ocasio-Cortez’s victory over Crowley has since emboldened the socialist faction of the Democratic Party and propelled the inexperienced lawmaker into the national spotlight, which she’s leveraged to champion the “Green New Deal” unveiled this week.
The plan is essentially a fundamental transformation of America into a socialist country.
The highlights include banning fossil fuels, eliminating nuclear energy, eliminating cars, retrofitting “every building in America” with “state of the art energy efficiency,” an end to air travel, government guaranteed jobs, “free” education for life, “healthy food” for every American provided by the government, guaranteed “affordable, adequate housing,” free money for anyone “unable or unwilling” to work, and many other wildly impractical ideas.
The cost, of course, is massive, but the Green New Deal proposes the government can simply print more money and double taxes on job producers. Ocasio-Cortez has discussed a 70 percent tax rate on income over $10 million, while others have suggested rates as high as 90 percent.
The Washington Post contends the 70 percent tax would generate more than $700 billion over the next decade, while the Tax Foundation estimates it would more likely result in between $51 billion and $291 billion, depending on how the tax was implemented and how it impact behavior.
Either way, it would be a drop in a very large bucket compared to the incalculable costs of transforming America into Ocasio-Cortez’s socialist utopian vision.
And despite gaining the backing of several Democrat and socialist candidates running for president in 2020, the folks with authority to actually move on the Green New Deal seem far less enthused.
“It will be one of several or maybe many suggestions that we receive,” House Speaker Nancy Pelsoi told Politico Wednesday. “The green dream or whatever they call it, nobody knows what it is, but they’re for it, right?”
Pelosi also excluded Ocasio-Cortez from the House climate change committee.
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