Newly-minted congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez claims she wants the socialism of Sweden, but Sen. Lindsey Graham disagrees and is now accusing her of being “hell-bent” on making Americans live as “Venezuelan socialists.”
On Twitter, Graham trolled Ocasio-Cortez for her recent comments on Martin Luther King Jr. Day where she said climate change would end the world in 12 years.
“Millennials and people, you know, Gen Z and all these folks that will come after us are looking up and we’re like: ‘The world is gonna end in 12 years if we don’t address climate change and your biggest issue is how are we gonna pay for it?'” Ocasio-Cortez said.
Graham tweeted in response to AOC’s craziness: “Let’s bury the hatchet and enjoy the next 12 years because they are going to be our last, right?”
Graham went on to accuse the freshman congresswoman of wanting to make America like Venezuela. “Even worse news, @AOC and her new socialist colleagues seem hell-bent on making sure that our last 12 years will be spent as Venezuelan socialists, not Americans,” he said.
Graham openly pondered if Americans would reject AOC’s agenda if it were on the ballot in 2020: “Question: Is it possible Rep. Ocasio-Cortez could be wrong about the demise of the planet in 12 years and the American people reject her socialist agenda in 2020?” he asked.
“Stay tuned!” he added.
Ocasio-Cortez has previously stated she wants to model her socialist programs after Sweden, not Venezuela. During an interview on “60 Minutes,” Anderson Cooper asked her: “When people hear the word socialism, they think Soviet Union, Cuba, Venezuela. Is that what you have in mind?”
Ocasio-Cortez replied, “Of course not. What we have in mind — and what of my — and my policies most closely resemble what we see in the U.K., in Norway, in Finland, in Sweden.”
As noted by Investor’s Business Daily, for Ocasio-Cortez to make America like Sweden, she would have to abandon several Marxist principles she already holds dear.
Two of the countries she cites as role models have partially privatized their social security programs to save taxpayer money and provide better retirements for their citizens.
Sweden partially privatized its social security program in the mid-1990s. Britain began partially privatizing its public pension program in the late 1950s. In both countries, workers can invest a portion of their payroll taxes in individual, private accounts.
On minimum wage, Ocasio-Cortez has proposed a $15 federal minimum wage along with a “federal jobs guarantee.” Surprisingly, neither Sweden nor Norway has any minimum wage laws.
” Finland’s is 83% lower than the current U.S. minimum,” reports IBD. “The UK’s minimum wage is higher than the U.S., but nowhere near the $15 minimum she and other leftist Democrats are pushing.”
“And none of these countries would dream of something as radical as a ‘federal jobs guarantee,'” the report continued. “Finland, in fact, just abandoned its experiment in a related idea called ‘universal basic income‘ because of its costs and its adverse economic impacts.”
If Ocasio-Cortez were in charge, she would hike the federal corporate tax rate from 21% to 28%, even though the U.K.’s is only 19%, followed by Finland at 20% and Sweden at 22%.