The Poynter Institute Menu Donate State Editions * California * Florida * Iowa * Michigan * New Hampshire * New York * North Carolina * Pennsylvania * Texas * West Virginia * Wisconsin Issues * All Issues * Online hoaxes * Coronavirus * Health Care * Immigration * Extremism * Taxes * Marijuana * Environment * Crime * Guns * Foreign Policy * LGBTQ+ People * Joe Biden * Kamala Harris * Donald Trump * Mitch McConnell * Hakeem Jeffries * Ron DeSantis Media * PunditFact * Tucker Carlson * Sean Hannity * Rachel Maddow * Bloggers * PolitiFact Videos Campaigns * 2024 Elections Truth-o-Meter * True * Mostly True * Half True * Mostly False * False * Pants on Fire Promises * Biden Promise Tracker * Trump-O-Meter * Obameter * Latest Promises About Us * Our Process * Our Staff * En Español * Who pays for PolitiFact? * Advertise with Us * Suggest a Fact-check * Corrections and Updates * Newsletters Donate #### Follow us The Facts Newsletter Sign up English Español ### Stand up for the facts! Our only agenda is to publish the truth so you can be an informed participant in democracy. We need your help. More Info ### I would like to contribute One Time Monthly Yearly Join Now ![](\\" rnc___/b378320ba339074a71c8b848f14cac1f.jpg\\") ![](\\" rnc___/b4dc12761422f03d3fe3524a41da53ae.jpg\\") Republican Party of Florida stated on September 20, 2019 in a tweet: The Green New Deal \"would put a $600,000 tax burden on every household.\" ![\\"true\\"](\\" false/33efdb6633e5e2fdc2d4e2f63383a1e0.jpg.\\") ![\\"false\\"](\\" false.jpg\\") * Environment * Climate Change * Taxes * Florida * Republican Party of Florida ![\\"Amy](\\" By Amy Sherman September 27, 2019 # This GOP talking point that the Green New Deal will cost every household $600,000 is False Critics of the Green New Deal have circulated numerous false claims about the resolution — saying it would do everything from ban farting cows to eliminate air travel. Now the Republican Party of Florida is repeating a familiar talking point that the Green New Deal would create a scary pricetag. \"Democrats are proposing a radical $93 trillion Green New Deal which has been condemned by unions as a job killer and would put a $600,000 tax burden on every household,\" the Florida GOP tweeted Sept. 20. We previously fact-checked a claim that included the $93 trillion figure and rated it False. (President Donald Trump rounds up the claim to $100 trillion.) Here we will explain why the $600,000 figure is misleading, too. We found there is no government analysis of the cost of the Green New Deal per household. This is in part because the Green New Deal expresses goals; it doesn’t lay out specific policies. The $600,000 figure is based on adding up estimates in a report from a right-of-center group that cautioned it was an \"initial foray.\" But the GOP talking point exaggerates and oversimplifies the analysis so much that the $600,000 figure can’t be considered accurate. The basics about the Green New Deal The Green New Deal is a House resolution that U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio- Cortez, D-New York, introduced in February. Resolutions are not actual, detailed legislation in themselves. In this case, the Green New Deal resolution in the House — and its companion measure that was introduced in the Senate — address broad principles to curb climate change and protect the environment. The resolutions extend into other domestic policy areas, as well, including jobs and health care. But the proposal doesn’t lay out any cost figures, and it has not received a cost estimate by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. The House resolution was forwarded to several committees and subcommittees for further review. The Republican-led Senate, meanwhile, voted down the measure in March after it was introduced by Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., and co-sponsored by many Senate Democrats running for president. The source of the $600,000 figure The Florida GOP did not respond to our questions about the source of their evidence, but conservative news outlets have cited the $600,000 figure from a February report by the American Action Forum, a right-of-center think tank. The American Action Forum is a sister organization of the American Action Network, a conservative advocacy organization. The American Action Forum acknowledged the difficulty in coming up with a number for the cost, saying that \"the breadth of its proposals makes it daunting to assess\" and that many of the proposed policies are redundant, \"which also complicates a precise analysis.\" #### Featured Fact-check ![](\\" ![](\\" Donald Trump stated on August 23, 2024 in a speech in Las Vegas “Kamala cast the tiebreaking vote to hire 87,000 new IRS agents to go after your tip income.” ![\\"true\\"](\\" false/33efdb6633e5e2fdc2d4e2f63383a1e0.jpg.\\") ![\\"false\\"](\\" false.jpg\\") By Amy Sherman • August 28, 2024 The report doesn’t mention the $600,000 figure or a total for the estimated per-household cost. However, it does show the estimated per-household cost for different parts of the Green New Deal, some of which were expressed in ranges. The Florida GOP’s tweet said that the Green New Deal \"would put a $600,000 tax burden on every household\" -- which could suggest a massive tax increase for every family. But the American Action Forum analysis doesn’t actually say that every household will pay that cost in new taxes. And the costs identified in the analysis are spread over about a decade, from 2020 to 2029. Douglas Holtz-Eakin, president of the American Action Forum and a former head of the Congressional Budget Office, told PolitiFact that he stands by the analysis. \"We never actually added it up,\" he said. \"We tried to get the order of magnitude, what are we looking at here? That was the intent of that first piece.\" If we add up the high-end range in each category, that adds up to $671,010 between 2020 and 2029. If we added up the low-end range in each category, it adds up to $369,010. To come up with estimates, the American Action Forum made a series of assumptions, such as that the Green New Deal would lead to enough high-speed rail transit available that air travel becomes unnecessary. The actual text of the resolution does not call for grounding airplanes. (A much-panned FAQ document written by Ocasio-Cortez’s staff said \"we aren’t sure that we’ll be able to fully get rid of farting cows and airplanes that fast.\" But a staff- written FAQ carries zero weight legislatively.) The American Action Forum analysis also factored in costs for Bernie Sanders’ Medicare for All. However, the text of the Senate resolution itself doesn’t include a statement on Medicare for All -- instead, it more broadly calls for \"high-quality health care.\" (At least some of the resolution co-sponsors do support separate legislation Medicare for All however.) Holtz-Eakin said he had hoped more specifics would emerge from proponents allowing a more specific cost analysis, but that hasn’t happened, he said. Our ruling The Florida GOP tweeted that the Green New Deal \"would put a $600,000 tax burden on every household.\" The Green New Deal is a set of goals; it does not impose specific taxes. Instead, the $600,000 number comes from a brief that its author, the right-of- center American Action Forum, acknowledges is a preliminary and rough estimate. The analysis did not say that every household would pay an extra $600,000 in taxes. Instead, it estimated what costs might be under a range of scenarios over a period of 10 years. It’s possible the resolution will eventually lead to legislation that can be formally analyzed for potential costs, but at this point, such costs can’t be determined. We rate this statement False. #### Read About Our Process The Principles of the Truth-O-Meter ### Our Sources Republican Party of Florida, Tweet, Sept. 20, 2019 Congress.gov, \"H.Res.109 - Recognizing the duty of the Federal Government to create a Green New Deal,\" Feb. 12, 2019 Congress.gov, S.Res.59 - A resolution recognizing the duty of the Federal Government to create a Green New Deal, Feb. 7, 2019 American Action Forum, \"The Green New Deal: Scope, Scale, and Implications,\" Feb. 25, 2019 American Action Forum, Comparing the Benefits and Costs of Notable Climate Policies, May 8, 2019 Politico, The bogus number at the center of the GOP’s Green New Deal attacks, March 10, 2019 Washington Post, Trump\'s math on the Democrats\' Green New Deal may have come from a tweet, March 22, 2019 Washington Post, Senate defeats Green New Deal, as Democrats call vote a ‘sham’ March 26, 2019 Brian Riedl, senior fellow at Manhattan Institute, Tweet, Feb. 8, 2019 Republican Party of Virginia, Democrat agenda: getting rid of farting cows and airplanes, Accessed Sept. 24, 2019 Wisconsin GOP, Tweet, July 30, 2019 Michigan GOP, Tweet, Aug. 13, 2019 Factbase, Speech: Donald Trump Holds a Political Rally in Green Bay, Wisconsin, April 27, 2019 Fox News, Green New Deal would cost up to $93 trillion, or $600G per household, study says, Feb. 25, 2019 Washington Times op-ed by Rep. Sam Graves, Time to face reality -- Green New Deal is a nightmare, Sept. 9, 2019 Washington Examiner, I also plan to surround · myself with great people ·and in addition to that investigation, Feb. 27, 2019 PolitiFact, Ernst uses flabby $93 trillion estimate for Green New Deal, March 12, 2019 PolitiFact, \"7 questions about the Green New Deal,\" Feb. 12, 2019 PolitiFact Florida, \"No, the Green New Deal doesn\'t aim to end air travel, as Florida Sen. Rick Scott says,\" Feb. 28, 2019 Telephone interview, American Action Forum president Douglas Holtz-Eakin, Sept. 24, 2019 Email interview, Giselle Barry, Sen. Ed Markey spokeswoman, Sept. 24, 2019 ## Browse the Truth-O-Meter ### More by Amy Sherman ![](\\" ![](\\" JD Vance stated on August 25, 2024 in an interview on NBC\'s \"Meet the Press\": A zero-tolerance policy during the Trump administration \"led to less family separation than under Kamala Harris\' border policies.” ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Amy Sherman • September 4, 2024 ![](\\" ![](\\" Donald Trump stated on August 26, 2024 in an interview with a podcaster: Vice President Kamala Harris “is a communist. … She is really a Marxist.” ![\\"pants-fire\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"pants-fire\\"](\\" pants-fire.jpg\\") By Amy Sherman • September 4, 2024 ![](\\" ![](\\" Rick Scott stated on August 28, 2024 in a post on X: “This month alone, more than 16,000 non-citizens have been removed from the voter rolls in 3 states.” ![\\"half-true\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"half-true\\"](\\" true.jpg\\") By Samantha Putterman • August 29, 2024 ![](\\" ![](\\" Donald Trump stated on August 23, 2024 in a speech in Las Vegas: “Kamala cast the tiebreaking vote to hire 87,000 new IRS agents to go after your tip income.” ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Amy Sherman • August 28, 2024 ![](\\" ![](\\" Tim Walz stated on August 14, 2024 in a speech in California: Former President Donald Trump “cut overtime benefits for millions of workers.” ![\\"barely-true\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"barely-true\\"](\\" barely-true.jpg\\") By Amy Sherman • August 20, 2024 ![](\\" ![](\\" Pete Buttigieg stated on August 11, 2024 in an interview on CNN State of the Union: Gov. Tim Walz delivered paid family leave in Minnesota but “Republicans are blocking” a Biden-Harris proposal. ![\\"mostly-true\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"mostly-true\\"](\\" mostly-true.jpg\\") By Amy Sherman • August 16, 2024 ![](\\" ![](\\" Donald Trump stated on August 8, 2024 in a press conference: Says his Jan. 6, 2021, speech on the White House Ellipse drew the “same number of people,” as the 1963 March on Washington where Martin Luther King Jr. gave his “I Have a Dream” speech. ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Louis Jacobson • August 9, 2024 ![](\\" Instagram_logo_2016.svg/322c808c00e73c217d17772ddd5a0eb5.jpg\\") ![](\\" Instagram_logo_2016.svg/8b142c91ebe468a84a192e6df2b7b994.jpg\\") Instagram posts stated on August 2, 2024 in a video: In Pompano Beach, Florida, Somali immigrants illegally in the U.S. were in line to get driver’s licenses and “all you need to vote is a driver\'s license.” ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Kwasi Gyamfi Asiedu • August 7, 2024 ![](\\" ![](\\" Donald Trump stated on July 27, 2024 in a rally in St. Cloud, Minnesota: During the 2020 Minnesota riots after George Floyd’s murder, Gov. Tim Walz didn’t call in the National Guard, “so, I sent in the National Guard to save Minneapolis.” ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Amy Sherman • August 7, 2024 ![](\\" ![](\\" Donald Trump stated on August 3, 2024 in a rally in Atlanta: Kamala Harris “supports mandatory gun confiscation.” ![\\"barely-true\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"barely-true\\"](\\" barely-true.jpg\\") By Amy Sherman • August 7, 2024 ![](\\" ![](\\" Donald Trump stated on July 24, 2024 in a rally in Charlotte, North Carolina: Kamala Harris “wants to defund the police.” ![\\"barely-true\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"barely-true\\"](\\" barely-true.jpg\\") By Amy Sherman • July 30, 2024 ![](\\" ![](\\" Donald Trump stated on July 24, 2024 in a rally in Charlotte, North Carolina: Kamala Harris “supported abolishing ICE.” ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Amy Sherman • July 29, 2024 ![](\\" Instagram_logo_2016.svg/322c808c00e73c217d17772ddd5a0eb5.jpg\\") ![](\\" Instagram_logo_2016.svg/8b142c91ebe468a84a192e6df2b7b994.jpg\\") Instagram posts stated on July 22, 2024 in an Instagram post: There are nine states “where Biden’s name can’t be removed and no one can be added. That’s over 130 electoral votes in the toilet.” ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Ranjan Jindal • July 23, 2024 ![](\\" ![](\\" Kamala Harris stated on July 17, 2024 in a campaign video: \"Unlike Mike Pence, (JD) Vance said he would have carried out Trump\'s plan to overturn the 2020 election.\" ![\\"mostly-true\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"mostly-true\\"](\\" mostly-true.jpg\\") By Amy Sherman • July 18, 2024 ![](\\" ![](\\" Kari Lake stated on July 16, 2024 in in a speech at RNC in Milwaukee: “Just last week, Ruben Gallego voted to let the millions of people who poured into our country illegally cast a ballot in this upcoming election.” ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Amy Sherman • July 17, 2024 ### This GOP talking point that the Green New Deal will cost every household $600,000 is False * ![](\\" ![](\\" Instagram posts stated on September 12, 2024 in an Instagram post: A video shows a body that Israel embedded with a bomb exploding during a Palestinian funeral procession. ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Sofia Ahmed • September 13, 2024 * ![](\\" ![](\\" Facebook posts stated on September 11, 2024 in a post: “ESPN has fired Shannon Sharpe.” ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Gideon Hess • September 13, 2024 * ![](\\" ![](\\" Instagram posts stated on September 12, 2024 in an Instagram post: Former President Donald Trump admitted during the Sept. 10 presidential debate that he “blew up the Nord Stream pipeline.” ![\\"pants-fire\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"pants-fire\\"](\\" pants-fire.jpg\\") By Loreben Tuquero • September 13, 2024 * ![](\\" ![](\\" Facebook posts stated on September 10, 2024 in a Facebook post: Patron, Don Julio and Pink Whitney tequila recalled because they contained fecal matter. ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Jeff Cercone • September 13, 2024 * ![](\\" ![](\\" Elissa Slotkin stated on September 11, 2024 in a TV ad: Mike Rogers supported “laws that could eliminate IVF and birth control.” ![\\"half-true\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"half-true\\"](\\" true.jpg\\") By Caleb McCullough • September 13, 2024 * ![](\\" ![](\\" Instagram posts stated on September 11, 2024 in an Instagram post: \"Debate moderators made the false claim to Donald Trump that there is nowhere in the United States where abortion is legal up until birth.\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Jeff Cercone • September 13, 2024 * ![](\\" ![](\\" Facebook posts stated on September 12, 2024 in a Facebook post: ABC News fired presidential debate moderators David Muir and Linsey Davis. ![\\"pants-fire\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"pants-fire\\"](\\" pants-fire.jpg\\") By Sofia Ahmed • September 13, 2024 * ![](\\" ![](\\" Yes on 4 stated on September 10, 2024 in a TV ad: Florida’s six-week abortion law has “no real exceptions. Not for her health. Not even for rape.” ![\\"barely-true\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"barely-true\\"](\\" barely-true.jpg\\") By Samantha Putterman • September 13, 2024 * ![](\\" ![](\\" Facebook posts stated on September 11, 2024 in una publicación en Facebook: Imagen muestra carnet del Partido Comunista de la vicepresidenta Kamala Harris. ![\\"pants-fire\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"pants-fire\\"](\\" pants-fire.jpg\\") By Maria Briceño • September 13, 2024 * ![](\\" ![](\\" Sam Brown stated on August 28, 2024 in a campaign appearance: Proposed Nevada constitutional amendment to protect abortion rights would put “essentially no limit on access to abortion.” ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Caleb McCullough • September 13, 2024 Load more ### Support independent fact-checking. Become a member! In a world of wild talk and fake news, help us stand up for the facts. Sign me up #### Offices District of Columbia 1800 I Street NW Washington, DC 20006 Florida 801 3rd St. S St. Petersburg, FL 33701 727-821-9494 #### People * Joe Biden * Kamala Harris * Donald Trump * Mitch McConnell * Hakeem Jeffries * Ron DeSantis #### State Editions * California * Florida * Iowa * Michigan * New Hampshire * New York * North Carolina * Pennsylvania * Texas * West Virginia * Wisconsin #### About Us * Our Process * Our Staff * En Español * Who pays for PolitiFact? * Advertise with Us * Corrections and Updates * Newsletters #### RSS Feeds * Recent Articles and Fact-checks * Recent Fact-checks Suggest a Fact-check #### Follow us The Facts Newsletter Sign up Terms & Conditions Privacy Policy Copyright ©All Rights Reserved Poynter Institute 2020, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization ![\\"\\"](\\" * * * ✕
The Green New Deal would put a 600000 tax burden on every household