WASHINGTON – Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., has a message for the many Republican critics who think her Green New Deal would leave the country in the red: Read the plan.

After listening to GOP lawmakers slam the climate change proposal during a House Oversight Committee hearing Tuesday, the liberal firebrand suggested its detractors should end their "fixation" on what they've heard about the non-binding blueprint and familiarize themselves with the Green New Deal.

"We don't need cliff notes for a 14-page resolution that was designed to be read in plan English by the American people," said Ocasio-Cortez, looking over to the Republican side of the dais. "So I would encourage my colleagues to actually read the resolution presented so they can speak to it responsibly and respectfully."

The hearing featured testimony from former Secretary of State John Kerry and former Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, who acknowledged under questioning from Ocasio-Cortez that lives would be lost if climate change is not immediately addressed.

"I think what we have laid out here is a very clear moral problem," she said. "If we fail to act or if we delay in acting, we will have blood on our hands."

Spurred by government reports warning of drastic consequences of climate change, Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., unveiled the proposal in February.

It calls not only for combating climate change by eliminating carbon emissions caused by fossil fuels and shifting the economy to one powered by renewable fuels, but also prescribes a broad platform supporting free housing, medical coverage and higher education for all Americans.

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Many GOP lawmakers have ridiculed the plan, focusing on its original talking points that called for even further-reaching goals: a build-out of high-speed rail that would make carbon-emitting airplane travel obsolete; an end to dependence of nuclear power as well as fossil fuels; and the creation of "a sustainable, pollution and greenhouse gas free, food system" that would no longer rely on "farting cows."

None of those is in the proposed resolution

Critics have not only mocked what they see as its socialist aspirations but also say the country couldn't afford it's price tag.

Though Republicans have been the Green New Deal's fiercest critics, moderate Democrats aren't big fans either – especially those running for re-election in districts President Donald Trump won in 2016.

Several of them are already on record saying they wouldn't vote for it if it came up on the House floor.

Some Republicans at Tuesday's hearing said critics of the Green New Deal are not trying to be personal but have reasonable concerns.

"I don't criticize (Ocasio-Cortez) for her plan, but what I do question is, everything has a price tag," said Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C. "You got to figure out how to pay for something along with proposing what you want to do. I think it's irresponsible to do anything other than that."

Kerry, a former Massachusetts senator who was the Democratic presidential nominee in 2004, said in an exchange with a GOP member that Republicans who mock the Green New Deal should at least recognize the need to act on climate change.

"There are a lot of different proposals about how to proceed. I don't know that any of them are coming from your party," he told Rep. James Comer, R-Ky. "What she has proposed ... has in fact offered more leadership in one day or one week than President Trump has in his lifetime on this subject."