Page 5 - April 2019

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BEWARE OF SOCIAL SECURITY SCAM CALLARE OF SOCIAL SECURITY SCAM CALLSS
BEWARE OF SOCIAL SECURITY SCAM CALLS
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BEWARE OF SOCIAL SECURITY SCAM CALLARE OF SOCIAL SECURITY SCAM CALLSS
The Alliance for Retired Americans to be wary and protect their personal
“There are so many different progressive reports... information. “Please do not engage with
issues that are important, and climate change callers who say they are from SSA and ask
and addressing renewable energy always gets In recent months, reports of you for personal information,” said
to the bottom of the barrel,” Ocasio-Cortez people impersonating SSA Joseph Peters, Jr., Secretary-Treasurer
told The Intercept. “That can gets kicked from employees over the phone have of the Alliance. “We urge citizens to
Dear EarthTalk: What is the so-called session to session and so what this just needs increased drastically. The SSA has report any suspicious calls to Social
Green New Deal proposed by Alexandria to do is create a momentum and an energy to released a warning to all Security’s Office of the Inspector General
Ocasio-Cortez, and is Congress likely to go make sure that it becomes a priority for beneficiaries and their loved ones (OIG) at 1-800-269-0271 or by
for it? — Mark Talarico, Brooklyn, NY leadership.” submitting a report on the OIG website.”

The concept of a “Green New Deal” At least 45 House members have expressed
(GND), first called for in a 2007 New York support for the GND, while eight likely
Times op-ed by Thomas Friedman, has been Democratic presidential candidates (including
in the news lately thanks to a protest outside Jay Inslee, Cory Booker, Kamala Harris,
of Nancy Pelosi’s office in mid-November a Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren) are also
week after the 2018 mid-term elections behind it. And with the majority of Americans
when Democrats took back the House. The favoring taking strong action against climate
goal of the GND is to put America at the change even if it means higher taxes,
forefront of green technologies to meet or implementing some kind of GND seems like a
exceed our Paris climate treaty no-brainer.
commitments while boosting the economy
and reducing economic inequality. But environmentalists might not want to
hold their breath. For
starters, Ocasio-Cortez’s
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez proposal proposal for the creation
of a new House Select
Committee on a Green
New Deal won’t be ready
for a full House vote
until 2020. Also, just
because 40 members of
Congress are supportive
now doesn’t say
anything about where
the other 395
Congresspersons stand,
let alone the 100
members of the still-
Republican-controlled
Senate. Meanwhile,
conservative critics point
Think of it as like President Franklin out that a Green New Deal could actually hurt
Delano Roosevelt’s original “New Deal” the economy more than help it given how
that helped get Americans back on their feet reliant we are on abundant and cheap fossil
economically after the Great Depression fuels. Even some liberals worry the GND is
through the creation of millions of trying to bite off more than we can chew. Only
federally-funded jobs that not only time will tell if something like the GND will
employed people but boosted U.S. economic become the law of the land—and many greens
productivity. The GND aims to give are keeping their fingers crossed.
Americans a leg up in profiting off the
transition to greener energy sources while CONTACTS: Thomas Friedman’s “A
simultaneously reducing the divide between Warning from the Garden,” https://goo.gl/
the haves and have-nots. zQ324A; Sunrise Movement,
www.sunrisemovement.org; Alexandria
At that November protest, hundreds of Ocasio-Cortez, ocasio-cortez.house.gov.
activists affiliated with the so-called Sunrise
Movement showed up to call on Pelosi to EarthTalk® is produced by Roddy Scheer
back omnibus economic stimulus legislation & Doug Moss for the 501(c)3 nonprofit
that would put millions of Americans to EarthTalk. To donate, visit
work on facilitating the transition to an www.earthtalk.org. Send questions to:
economy powered by 100 percent question@earthtalk.org.
renewable, emissions-free energy. Later that
day incoming Congresswoman Alexandria
Ocasio-Cortez showed her support by 1-800-273-8255
proposing the creation of a new House press 1 for Vets
Select Committee on a Green New Deal 1-800-273-8255
tasked with detailing a “national, industrial,
economic mobilization plan capable of Share the
making the U.S. economy ‘carbon neutral’ Resources
while promoting ‘economic and
environmental justice and equality’.”

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