Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez would have none of it. She did not allow CNN’s Chris Cuomo to define the narrative. She turned the tables on him, and it was clear he had no comeback as he ended the interview.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez stands her ground: Defends Progressive Values
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez torches CNN's Chris Cuomo for slamming Progressive Agenda (VIDEO) – https://t.co/zHdWJE948z #MedicareForAll #SinglePayer @Ocasio2018 pic.twitter.com/Fa2JAsNnbD
— Egberto Willies, Politics Done Right host 🇺🇲🇵🇦 (@EgbertoWillies) August 9, 2018
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez gave Chris Cuomo a clinic on the failure of the mainstream media to question the immorality of the objection to the Progressive Agenda.
Chris Cuomo started with what seemed like a devil’s advocate position. But it seemed as he spoke like it was his position.
“Man! You want to spend a lot of my tax money on these proposals that you and Bernie and others have,” Chris Cuomo said. “Medicare for All, college tuition, maybe even housing that the Green New Deal that you have. It is all very expensive, especially on the single-payer side. And that it gives people sticker shock. …”
Ocasio-Cortez did not fall for the false narrative that Single-Payer Medicare for All cost more. She fused the reality of premiums being a tax and corroborated her statement with a recent Koch brothers study. Interestingly, the study showed Single-Payer Medicare for All would be less expensive in the aggregate. And that is with every American covered.
“… People talk about the sticker shock of Medicare for all,” Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez responded. “They do not talk about the sticker shock of the cost of our existing system. You know in a Koch-brothers-funded-study, it shows that Medicare for all is actually much cheaper than the current system that we pay right now. And let’s not forget that the reason that the Supreme Court upheld the Affordable Care Act is because they ruled that each of these monthly payments that every day Americans make is a tax. And so while it may not seem like we pay that tax on April 15th. We pay it every single month. Americans have the sticker shock of health care as it is.”
Ocasio-Cortez then went into the costs the mainstream media and opponents tend not to emphasize.
“And we’re also not talking about is why aren’t we incorporating the cost of all the funeral expenses of those who died because they can’t afford access to health care,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “That is part of the cost of our system. Why don’t we talk about the cost of reduced productivity because of people who need to go on disability, because of people who are not able to participate in our economy because they have an accident because they are having issues like diabetes or they don’t have access to the health care that they need.”
Ocasio-Cortex then went on the attack. She pointed out that when it comes to war, or giveaways to the wealthy, politicians find the money. But when it comes to education and healthcare, they fail to do the moral thing.
“I think at the end of the day we see that this is not a pipe dream,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “Every other developed nation in the world does this. Why can’t America? And that is the question that we need to ask. We have done these things before. We write unlimited blank cheques for war. We just wrote a two trillion dollar cheque for that tax cut, the GOP tax cut, and nobody asked those folks how are they going to pay for it. So my question is, why is it that our pockets are only empty when it comes to education and health care for our kids? Why are our pockets only empty when we talk about a 100 percent renewable energy that is going to save this planet and allow our children to thrive? We only have empty pockets when it comes to the morally right things to do. But when it comes to tax cuts for billionaires and when it comes to unlimited war we seem to be able to invent that money very easily. And to me, it belies a lack of moral priorities that people have right now, especially the Republican Party.
Today I saw a tweet that said there that Ocasio-Cortez was an unknown trying to change the Democratic Party. That could not be further from the truth. She is new blood articulating who the Democratic Party has claimed to be but unable to put in words when in front of a camera. Great job Alexandria. You keep getting better.
Check out my interview with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez here.