Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.) falsely suggested during the Democratic presidential debate on Tuesday that the Green New Deal does not include a provision calling for a federal jobs guarantee.
Gov. John Hickenlooper (D., Colo.) called the jobs guarantee in the Green New Deal a "distraction."
"I think the guarantee for a public job for everyone who wants one is a classic part of the problem. It's a distraction," Hickenlooper said.
Warren accused Hickenlooper of reaching for a Republican talking point in his attack on the Green New Deal.
"Look, I put a real policy on the table to create 1.2 million new jobs in green manufacturing. There's going to be a $23 trillion worldwide market for this. This could revitalize huge cities across this country, and no one wants to talk about it," Warren said. "What you want to do is find the Republican talking point of a made up piece of some other part and say, oh, we don't really have to do anything. That's the problem we've got in Washington right now. It continues to be a Washington that works great for oil companies, just not for people worried about climate change."
The Green New Deal does, in fact, contain a call for a federal jobs guarantee.
"[T]o achieve the Green New Deal goals and mobilization, a Green New Deal will require the following goals and projects.... guaranteeing a job with a family-sustaining wage, adequate family and medical leave, paid vacations, and retirement security to all people of the United States," Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's (D., NY) proposal reads.
A new study found the Green New Deal would cost just under $75,000 per household in the first year of the program and would not fall below $37,000 in any of the following years. Another report found the Green New Deal would have little effect on global warming, but would impose enormous economic and social costs.