Democratic House Speaker Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) slammed the field of 2020 Democratic presidential candidates on Friday over their far-left policy ideas, warning that the country is not “San Francisco.”
“What works in San Francisco does not necessarily work in Michigan,” Pelosi told Bloomberg News. “As a left-wing San Francisco liberal I can say to these people: What are you thinking?”
Pelosi specifically raised the alarm over socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s (D-NY) proposed $93 trillion “Green New Deal,” which Ocasio-Cortez’s former Cheif-of-Staff Saikat Chakrabarti admitted was about implementing socialism.
“There’s very strong opposition on the labor side to the Green New Deal because it’s like 10 years, no more fossil fuel. Really?” Pelosi said.
Pelosi has long opposed Ocasio-Cortez’s extremist policies and “threw some serious shade on Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez – denying her a coveted spot on a special panel on climate change and brushing off her Green New Deal,” The New York Post wrote back in February.
Pelosi has repeatedly dismissed the Green New Deal in interviews and comments to reporters.
“It will be one of several or maybe many suggestions that we receive,” Pelosi said. “The green dream, or whatever they call it, nobody knows what it is, but they’re for it, right?”
Later in February, Pelosi took another shot at Ocasio-Cortez’s proposals, saying: “Now, in terms of the Green New Deal [as conceived], that goes beyond what our charge is. Our charge is about saving the planet. They have in there things like single-payer and … what is it? Guaranteed income?”
“And then they have, I don’t know if it’s single-payer or Medicare for All,” Pelosi continued. “It’s kind of, like, a broader agenda … not what we hope to achieve with this focused, determined, decision-making.”
Pelosi even mocked Ocasio-Cortez in a “60 Minutes” interview when asked about the support Ocasio-Cortez has in Congress.
“That’s like five people,” Pelosi fired back.
“While there are people who have a large number of Twitter followers, what’s important is that we have large numbers of votes on the floor of the House,” Pelosi said in a separate interview.
Pelosi, who is a proponent of big government programs, even expressed concern over the cost of the extreme policies that were being proposed, saying: “We cannot just keep increasing the debt.”
Sen. Michael Bennet (D-CO) — who is a long shot Democratic presidential candidate — even expressed anxiety over how far-left the other presidential candidates have become.
“Donald Trump, you can see it in his face. He thinks the game is coming to him. You can see it in his face every day,” Bennet said in regards to Democrats eliminating private insurance and forcing everyone into government-run healthcare. “If we nominate someone that is for that plan, we will not win the presidency, and we will have no hope of winning a majority in the Senate.”
“If we’re going to go into this election talking about taking away [employer-based] health insurance for 180 million people, I guarantee we will be on defense,” Bennet added.
A poll from late July found that far more independent voters believe that Democrats have gone too far to the left than believe that Republicans have gone too far to the right.
On the issue of health care, 7 out of 10 Americans like their private health insurance and only 1 out of 10 Americans said that they want the Democrats’ government-run “Medicare for All” if it means abolishing private health insurance.
Many of the Democratic presidential candidates support decriminalizing illegal border crossings despite the fact that two-thirds of Americans believe that it is a bad idea.