After hearing President Biden outline his massive $2 trillion “infrastructure” bill last week, freshman Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the most proponent voice of the Green New Deal, bemoaned that any plan to sufficiently address the climate crisis will need to cost at least $10 trillion.

The New York congresswoman admitted that “it’s a ton” and that she’s not excited to say we need to spend $10 trillion on climate - but that “it’s just the fact of the scenario.”

As for Biden’s $2 trillion spending measure, only a fraction of that - about $600 billion - would be used for infrastructure, including modernizing roads and repairing crumbling bridges.

Billions would be directed to initiatives such as charging stations for electric vehicles, eliminating lead water pipes, workforce development, and research and development.

The White House said tax increases would offset the cost over 15 years. Biden’s “once in a generation” plan requires congressional approval and that may be a tough sell, given the negative feedback from conservatives and even some moderate Democrats.

Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio, who was one of 10 Republicans to try to negotiate with Biden on coronavirus relief, said that he supports improving America’s aging roads, bridges, ports and other infrastructure and that it can be done in a bipartisan way, but he feels Biden’s plan is far too expensive and does not focus on infrastructure.

Although the Biden plan calls for a $620 billion investment in transportation infrastructure, Portman said the $2 trillion total soars to $3 trillion when including the list of broad policy priorities that are a far cry from what would be defined as infrastructure.

With less than 6 percent targeting roads and bridges, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said the plan is not about rebuilding America’s backbone. He said more money would be spent just on electric cars than on the nation’s roads, bridges, ports, airports and waterways combined.

Tennessee Sen. Bill Hagerty said he would not support a sweeping spending spree full of pet projects for Democrats and advances the Green New Deal under the guise of infrastructure.

Texas Sen Ted Cruz stated that the $2 trillion plan is really just the Green New Deal-lite masquerading as an infrastructure plan.

Forty years ago, as the national debt was approaching a trillion dollars, even President Ronald Reagan had trouble comprehending that massive number.

“I’ve been trying to think of a way to illustrate how big it really is,” Reagan said. “The best I could come up with is to say that a stack of $1,000 bills in your hand only 4 inches high would make you a millionaire. A trillion dollars would be a stack of $1,000 bills 67 miles high.”

A “fact check” by United Press International calculated that the distance is actually 63.1 miles, but the Great Communicator still delivered his point.

Thirty years later, when the national debt reached 14.3 trillion, another distance comparison was made. The new figure would stretch that pile of $1,000 bills to the moon and back - twice.

The current national debt, when the federal government spends more than it takes in, causing it to borrow money to cover the annual deficit, now tops 28 trillion.

Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso, who chairs the Senate Republican Conference, called Biden’s plan an out-of-control socialist spending spree, which brings us back to Ocasio-Cortez and her Socialist Democrat cohorts on the left.

Throughout his career as a conservative, Ronald Reagan preached that the promises of socialism were lies and he warned against Big Government becoming a nanny state.

In one address, he said that socialists ignore the side of man that is of the spirit. He explained how they can provide shelter, fill your belly with bacon and beans, treat you when you’re ill - all the things that are guaranteed to a prisoner or a slave.

But, he said, they don’t understand we also dream … even of owning a yacht.

In a radio play at another time, Reagan also delivered one his most famous lines that amplified the dangerous socialist ideology of far-left liberals: “I never knew what freedom was until I saw you lose yours.”

By Jim Zbick | tneditor@tnonline.com

The foregoing opinions do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editorial Board or Times News LLC.