PERSPECTIVE FROM THE 19^TH HOLE: This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus use an image from my favorite sport, golf. Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all of my professional positions, including as a Congressional press secretary in Washington, D.C., an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and a private sector lobbyist. This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.

Forgive me, but I cannot get out of my head that the weird, over-the-top proposals to install socialism in this country arise because those making them are jealous of the so-called “rich” who have worked hard to produce their “wealth.”

None other than the mercurial new U.S. representative, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, wants America to become socialist so she and those for whom she says she speaks can receive government hand-outs.  She prefers government largesse over hard work.

Washington Post columnist Mark Thiessen wrote about this in a piece that ran Friday under this headline:

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez accidentally exposes the left’s big lie

Here is how Thiessen started his piece:

“Cortez’s now infamous talking points on the Green New Deal are the most unintentionally honest explanation of the neo-socialism now gripping the Democratic Party. Too honest, apparently. After her office sent the “Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)” to NPR, the Post and other news organizations, and posted a similar version on her congressional website, they were met with withering criticism — prompting Ocasio-Cortez to furiously backtrack, seeking to disown and discredit documents her office had produced, posted and distributed.

“Sorry, you don’t get to do that. Ocasio-Cortez told us what is really behind her Green New Deal. Now she, and the Democrats who endorsed her plan, have to live with it.”

Incredibly, Ocasio-Cortez has advocated for “getting rid of farting cows and airplanes,” upgrading or replacing “every building in America,” replacing “every combustible-engine vehicle,” and providing “economic security” for people “unwilling to work.”

There you have it – the left wing plan for America, unveiled by Ocasio-Cortez.

But Thiessen writes that “taxing the rich won’t come close to covering the costs of the Green New Deal, which includes a bunch of socialist policies that have nothing to do with climate change.”

Further, the Post reports that Manhattan Institute budget expert Brian Riedl has calculated the 10-year costs of proposals from the left. The results are stunning: $32 trillion for a single-payer health care plan; $6.8 trillion for a government jobs guarantee; $2 trillion for education, medical leave, job training and retirement security; and between $5 trillion and $40 trillion to fund universal basic income to support those who are “unwilling” to work. Grand total? Between $46 and $81 trillion.

Based on Reidl’s research, Thiessen contends the estimates “cover the price tag only before we even get to the energy and environmental policies in the Green New Deal. It is virtually impossible to accurately calculate the cost of replacing every vehicle that uses a combustion engine; bringing high-speed rail to every corner of America; upgrading or replacing every building in America; and replacing all fossil fuel energy with alternative energy sources. We’re talking hundreds of trillions of dollars. It would be virtually impossible to pay for it. And Americans don’t want to anyway.”

Now, with Ocasio-Cortez several things are true.

• She is nuts. She doesn’t know much about real government or real public policy issues. Her inexperience doesn’t dissuade her from proposing nearly anything.
• She talks – or releases information on-line – before she thinks…if she thinks at all.
• She conducts herself on the left like Trump does on the right. You cannot believe all she says as she relies on partial truths, out-of-context numbers, or outright lies.
• She reveals the true dimensions of the socialist proposals advocated by such presidential aspirants as Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders.

And, this conclusion by Thiessen in his Washington Post piece: “With her FAQ release, Ocasio-Cortez has inadvertently exposed the neo-socialist lie that you can get something for nothing. The Democratic Party’s embrace of that lie is going to get President Trump re-elected.”

For me, re-electing Trump would be bad, so here’s hoping that both Occasion-Cortez, Trump and their like on the far right and far left implode on the way to 2020.