Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a former waitress and bartender from Brooklyn who now serves in Congress as a lawmaker, has come up with a new idea: Free everything for everybody.
The self-styled democratic socialist said in a recent speech that there should be a “guaranteed universality” for all of the things that people need.
AOC said that “guaranteed universality” means “at the very least, a $15 an hour minimum wage or maybe higher as we introduce things” is needed. “It means Medicare for all, or at the very least guaranteed health care as a right. Housing as a right.”
“So we have to really say, for the things we depend on to live, we need at bare minimum a public option if not guaranteed universality,” the 29-year-old lawmaker said.
How to pay for all that free stuff. Not to worry, the international relations and economics major said.
“So I think in that transition it is worker centered and it invests in jobs and invests in labor. I think that progressive taxation is potentially a component of it,” she said.
“It’s not about how are we going to pay for it, it’s how do we want to pay for it,” she said.
Ocasio-Cortez: need “guaranteed universality” of anything people depend onhttps://t.co/f6lzKfrmxW pic.twitter.com/KMNkIfPNLh
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) December 16, 2019
The term “guaranteed universality” is reminiscent of a plan that has been deployed in Europe and some Scandinavian countries. “Universal Basic Income” provides a set amount — say, $1,000 — per month for all citizens, whether they work or not. That money can be used to buy the necessities of life.
Twitter lit up after AOC’s brilliant plan.
“God she is dumb… free….free….free. Everything is free and everything is a right. Free housing, how is that going to work? All the strides that Trump has made with the economy and the dems would flush it all down the toilet. It’s like they never want to win another election!” wrote on user.
God she is dumb…free….free….free. Everything is free and everything is a right. Free housing,how is that going to work? All the strides that Trump has made with the economy and the dems would flush it all down the toilet. It's like they never want to win another election!
— Garrett Sikes (@GarrettSikes2) December 16, 2019
“The first lesson of economics is scarcity: there is never enough of anything to fully satisfy all those who want it. The first lesson of politics is to disregard the first lesson of economics.’ – Thomas Sowell,” wrote another.
"The first lesson of economics is scarcity: there is never enough of anything to fully satisfy all those who want it. The first lesson of politics is to disregard the first lesson of economics."
– Thomas Sowell— Morey L (@MoreyL5) December 16, 2019
Yet another replied, and linked to an article headline: “Harvard study finds increased minimum wages contribute to restaurant failures in California’s Bay Area.”
“Two years after this study and hundreds more businesses closing because of the $15/hr min wage, idiots like Ocasio still spew their socialism diarrhea as the solution,” said the user.
@aoc Two years after this study and hundreds more businesses closing because of the $15/hr min wage, idiots like Ocasio still spew their socialism diarrhea as the solution.https://t.co/eGUQADsL6d
— mltcjl76 (@mltcjl76) December 17, 2019
AOC keeps coming up with this these really expensive plans. Her so-called “Green New Deal” would cost as much $93 trillion over 10 years, the American Action Forum determined.
Under the draft plan, Ocasio-Cortez proposes eliminating all fossil-fuel-powered electricity. That would shutter all coal and natural gas power plants across the United States, costing hundred of thousands of jobs. Oh, and she also wants to get rid of all gas-powered cars — in 10 years.
What’s more, the plan calls for a guarantee for every American to have a job, pledging to “provide all members of our society, across all regions and all communities, the opportunity, training and education to be a full and equal participant in the transition, including through a job guarantee program to assure a living wage job to every person who wants one.”
According to the draft plan of the Green New Deal, the program also plans to “mitigate deeply entrenched racial, regional and gender-based inequalities in income and wealth (including, without limitation, ensuring that federal and other investment will be equitably distributed to historically impoverished, low income, deindustrialized or other marginalized communities in such a way that builds wealth and ownership at the community level).”
In other words, socialism.
Related: ‘No One Should Go Through This’: AOC Complains About Being On Government Healthcare