(This post may contain disputed claims. We make no assertions as to the validity of the information presented by our Opinion Columnist. We are an opinion blog, not a traditional news outlet, and this post should be treated as such. Enjoy.)New York Democrat Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has publicly offered a “solution” to the COVID pandemic. Although she likely thought she had a perfect plan, it didn’t take long for Nikki Haley to come along and crush her ambitions. That wake-up call set AOC off, causing her to lash out angrily after the rebuke. Don’t miss this.
When democratic socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez decided to take to Twitter to float her idea for a solution to the coronavirus pandemic, she likely never imagined her one-sentence tweet would start a Twitter feud. That’s exactly what happened, however, when the post caught the attention of Nikki Haley, who wasn’t about to let AOC go unchecked.
“To get the virus under control, we need to pay people to stay home,” Ocasio-Cortez wrote, offering a “solution” to the COVID crisis in a short tweet on Thursday. There’s just one problem with that idea, though, and it didn’t take long for someone to spot it and point it out to the freshman congresswoman.
To get the virus under control, we need to pay people to stay home.
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) November 19, 2020
That “someone” was none other than Nikki Haley, who served as governor of South Carolina from 2011 to 2017 and as the US ambassador to the United Nations from 2017 to 2018. Within hours of AOC’s post, Haley shut down the plan in just one tweet.
“AOC, Are you suggesting you want to pay people to stay home from the money you take by defunding the police? Or was that for the student debts you wanted to pay off, the Green New Deal or Medicare for All?” Haley asked. “Where is the money,” she added in a hashtag.
AOC, Are you suggesting you want to pay people to stay home from the money you take by defunding the police? Or was that for the student debts you wanted to pay off, the Green New Deal or Medicare for All? #WhereIsTheMoney https://t.co/wZxxz67wcv
— Nikki Haley (@NikkiHaley) November 19, 2020
“Haley was referring to the progressive congresswoman’s support for the ‘Defund the Police’ policy set forth by the Black Lives Matter movement, her support for canceling student debt, her plan to combat global warming, and her support for Medicare for All,” The Blaze explained.
The rebuke didn’t sit well with Ocasio-Cortez, who made it obvious that she did not appreciate the criticism when she fired back in a second tweet. “Republicans are mad at this when they literally just voted to do just this in March. The reason they’re opposed to it now is because last time they got a Wall Street bailout and this time all that’s left is helping working people, the disabled, the poor, etc.,” she wrote.
While AOC made her claim, lambasting Republicans, without evidence, there is plenty to support Haley’s assertion about the progressive congresswoman and her suggested spending habits. Time and again, Ocasio-Cortez has been criticized and mocked for her pricey plans, including the Green New Deal, which some experts estimate could be as much as $94 trillion, according to The Blaze.
All told, researchers found the 10-year price tag could be as high as $94.4 trillion, which breaks down to $653,010 per household over the decade — meaning the annual cost per household would be $65,300. [Source: The Blaze]
In June of 2019, AOC admitted that it would cost at least $10 trillion to even get her audacious Green New Deal started. The number was “startling high,” but according to the congresswoman, it’s necessary, even though it’s “not a fun number to say.”
“I think we really need to get to $10 trillion to have a shot,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “I know it’s a ton,” she added. “I don’t think anyone wants to spend that amount of money, it’s not a fun number to say, I’m not excited to say we need to spend $10 trillion on climate, but… it’s just the fact of the scenario.”
Previously, the freshman member of Congress was also mocked for trying to explain how to easily pay for Medicare-For-All after employing very bad arithmetic to do it. Arguing that the government could have already paid for two-thirds of the $32 trillion price tag for Medicare-For-All by correcting Pentagon accounting errors, it was obvious that AOC’s math was not only off but so was her understanding of what had been reported.
“$21 TRILLION of Pentagon financial transactions ‘could not be traced, documented, or explained.’ $21T in Pentagon accounting errors. Medicare for All costs ~$32T,” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted at the time. “That means 66% of Medicare for All could have been funded already by the Pentagon. And that’s before our premiums.”
The claim earned the congresswoman plenty of criticism, but her greatest rebuke came in the form of a WaPo fact-check, giving her their greatest error rating of “four Pinocchios.” After she was accused of comparing apples to oranges and it was pointed out that the Pentagon errors she cited represent missed transactions that include both inflows and outflows and not a lost pot of $21 million that all went out the door, AOC tried to save face.
In another tweet, Ocasio-Cortez said that her real point was that people only demand fiscal details on health and education, but the Washington Post wasn’t buying it. “Ocasio-Cortez is not the first Twitter user to mangle information from a news report,” the Post wrote. “But it’s unconvincing to try to pass this off as a rhetorical point being misread.”
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has proven repeatedly that she doesn’t have a working knowledge of basic economics. That’s incredibly problematic and downright troubling since the socialism she supports is an economic system. AOC is trying to sell Americans on this system when she has no understanding of how the world — specifically money — works. Money doesn’t grow on trees, contrary to how the congresswoman tries to spend it.
Before anyone buys into her suggestions, they should remember the words of Wyoming Republican Senator John Barrasso, who chairs the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, regarding AOC’s other so-called solutions. “The American Action Forum’s analysis shows that the Green New Deal would bankrupt the nation,” he said. Noting the price tag, he added, “That is roughly four times the value of all Fortune 500 companies combined. That’s no deal.” We feel the same way about her pandemic “plan.”
