New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez urged the White House on Friday to take action on climate change after the Democrat’s last hope for a climate change bill derailed in the Senate.
Ocasio-Cortez said the congressional failure to deliver climate change legislation made it Biden’s responsibility to do something.
“We have communicated over a dozen executive orders to the president,” the representative said Friday. “Everything from declaring a national emergency to using his authority to really shaping his approach to how fossil fuels get authorized, how vehicles are authorized, there’s [power] in the executive branch, and I think it is time to use it.”
Ocasio-Cortez’s demand for presidential action came after Sen. Joe Manchin III pulled his support for the climate bill and tax provisions, killing the items in a party-line spending bill after negotiating with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer for months.
The West Virginia Democrat voiced his primary concern, runaway inflation that had Americans financially reeling. Manchin blamed the increased federal spending as the culprit. However, the senator’s spokesperson, Samantha Runyon, said, “Senator Manchin believes it’s time for leaders to put political agendas aside, reevaluate and adjust to the economic realities the country faces to avoid taking steps that add fuel to the inflation fire.”
However, Ocasio-Cortez said inflation rates were supply-driven and blamed corporations and big banks for the skyrocketing prices rather than government spending.
“The Federal Reserve and big banks are trying to convince the whole country and dupe everyday Americans that inflation is happening because the government did too much for them,” she said. The far-left progressive Democrat added that if Biden didn’t pursue executive action on climate change, it would show voters that Democrats don’t deliver on promises.
“We really need to use our executive authority to show the American People that when you give Democrats power, we will use it,” Ocasio-Cortez said.
Constitutionally, Congress has the purse strings. As a result, the president is limited in what he can do regarding spending money.
