Georgia Republican Senate candidate Herschel Walker is no fan of the Inflation Reduction Act. Neither is most of the Republican party and why would they be? Democrats were able to get Sen. Joe Manchin on board to pass $370 billion in spending on climate and energy programs. While some might be angry at the bill’s price tag, Walker has an issue with trees. Yes, the things that you need to remove carbon out of the air. As NBC News notes, Walker’s pitch against the Inflation Reduction Act is that we already have too many trees.
“They continue to try to fool you like they’re helping you out, but they’re not,” Walker said Sunday at a Republican Jewish Coalition event in Sandy Springs, near Atlanta, days after President Joe Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act into law. “They’re not helping you out, because a lot of the money is going into trees. You know that, don’t you? It’s going into trees. We’ve got enough trees. Don’t we have enough trees around here?”
The Inflation Reduction Act will allocate $1.5 billion toward the Urban and Community Forestry Assistance program. It’s an initiative to plant trees in urban areas to deal with increased heat caused by climate change. In a tweet, Walker made sure to double down on his comments.
“Yes, you heard me right…Joe Biden and @ReverendWarnock are spending $1.5 billion on ‘urban forestry’ and raising taxes on those making under $200k to pay for it. Yes, I have a problem with that,” he wrote.
Anything will help the country out as the country heads to a dangerous tipping point concerning the weather. Urban cities in America lose 36 million trees annually, and this past July was said to have some of the hottest nights ever on record. Power outages, flooding, and food shortages due to extreme weather will affect people of color the most.
But don’t let me tell you that. Herschel Walker has previously said that dirty air comes from China, so cleaning it is no point. It will be interesting to see him back these claims up in October’s upcoming debates with Sen. Raphael Warnock.