Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) responded Wednesday to Jamie Dimon after the JPMorgan Chase CEO criticized the Green New Deal backed by progressive Democrats.
In a tweet, the freshman New York congresswoman noted Dimon’s role in JPMorgan’s 2013 settlement with the federal government over allegations that the bank fraudulently described the quality of mortgages it was selling to investors in the lead-up to the 2008 financial crisis.
{mosads}”JP Morgan agreed to pay out *$13 billion* over its massive role in mortgage schemes w the ‘08 recession,” Ocasio-Cortez wrote. “They also finance major fossil fuel pipelines. It’s big money.”
“So maybe they *aren’t* the best authority on prioritizing economic wellbeing of everyday people & the planet,” she added.
Her comments came after Dimon trashed the Green New Deal proposal in an interview Tuesday while suggesting carbon taxes as a way to bring emissions and global climate change under control.
“I don’t spend much time worrying about things that I can’t effectuate. Can you focus on climate change in an intelligent way that doesn’t damage the economy? Yes, you can. It’s called CO2 emission taxes, or trading, there’s couple of ways to do it. So you better do it wisely because you could hurt the economy, which hurts everybody,” Dimon said during a CNN interview this week.
The Green New Deal calls for the upgrading of U.S. infrastructure to reduce emissions and shift to renewable energy. The proposal has supporters among the 2020 Democratic field of White House hopefuls and from other Democrats on Capitol Hill, but has faced criticism from conservatives and even some Democrats over its scale and the effect it would have on the U.S. economy.