• Green Party: The US must convert from the permanent Democratic-Republican war-time economy to Green peace-time economy before it's too late

• Green New Deal

• Videos of Dr. Stein's acceptance speech and more at the 2024 Green Convention

For immediate release
Friday, September 6, 2024

Contacts:
Gloria Mattera, Green Party Media Committee Coordinator, 202-804-2758, [email protected]
Scott McLarty, Green Party Media Director, 202-878-2112, [email protected]

WASHINGTON, DC — Green Party candidates and leaders said today that there is almost no difference between Democrats and Republicans on maintaining the permanent US war-time economy, with a military budget likely to reach $1 trillion whether Kamala Harris or Donald Trump is elected.

Greens continue to promote an alternative vision: the Green New Deal, a comprehensive plan to end the climate crisis with an "Economic Bill of Rights" and the bulk of funding coming from a 50 to 75% reduction in the US military budget and the savings reallocated into the Ecosocialist Green New Deal.

Green gubernatorial candidate Howie Hawkins introduced the Green New Deal in New York in 2010. Jill Stein introduced it nationally in her 2012 Green presidential campaign. The Green Party nominated Dr. Stein and Butch Ware for president and vice president during the 2024 Green National Convention.

Greens reacted with alarm to Kamala Harris's declaration, in her nomination acceptance speech, that "As Commander in Chief, I will ensure America always has the strongest, most lethal fighting force in the world," as well as her recent reversal on fracking, which she now supports.

Quotes from Greens

Rachel Braaten, Green candidate for Mayor of Crystal, Minnesota: "Both major parties and their candidates are taking marching orders from profiteering arms manufacturers with powerful lobbies, led by Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Raytheon, Northrop Grumman, and General Dynamics. The war in Ukraine, aid for Israel's genocidal assault on Gaza, and the $820 billion military budget have been enormously profitable for these companies.

"If Harris in the White House maintains Biden's foreign policies and the Gaza extermination or the US proxy war in Ukraine spills over into a global conflict, imagine how hollow the 'lesser evil' argument for voting Democrat will sound in hindsight."

Justin Paglino, Connecticut Green candidate for the US Senate and co-chair of the Green Party: "The US needs the Green New Deal, an urgently necessary blueprint comparable to FDR's New Deal and the Allies' united effort to stop the advance of Nazi Germany."

"While the war machine receives generous infusions of cash, human services face funding cuts, universal health care is off the table, and fossil-fuel extraction and consumption continue despite the worsening climate emergency. The US Armed Forces, exempt from measures to stop climate change, is the world's largest consumer of fossil fuels. None of these things will change if Trump or Harris is elected."

Michael Dublin, Green candidate for the US House in North Carolina, District 2: "Since the 1960s, Democrats have offered no big forward-looking ideas comparable to the passage of Medicare and Civil Rights acts and LBJ's War on Poverty and Great Society. Instead, they've embraced a slightly less sadistic version of Reagan's neoliberal economic revolution. Even Obamacare was based on a Republican model introduced by the Heritage Foundation.

"The 2024 race between Harris and Trump has been notably devoid of serious debate over major policies. Democrats and Republicans alike are clinging to the dangerous twin ideologies of neoliberalism and global US military domination.

"Only the Green Party is advocating a big idea to make life better for working Americans and the needy, ensure peace, and rescue future generations from the devastation of climate change — the Green New Deal."

Green Party of the United States
https://www.gp.org
202-804-2758