The new European data protection law requires us to inform you of the following before you use our website:
We use cookies and other technologies to customize your experience, perform analytics and deliver personalized advertising on our sites, apps and newsletters and across the Internet based on your interests. By clicking “I agree” below, you consent to the use by us and our third-party partners of cookies and data gathered from your use of our platforms. See our Privacy Policy and Third Party Partners to learn more about the use of data and your rights. You also agree to our Terms of Service.
AOC touts socialized medicine as answer to coronavirus crisis
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez says the U.S. public health system should be 'free for every single person in this country.'
Get all the latest news on coronavirus and more delivered daily to your inbox. Sign up here.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y.; Ilhan Omar, D-Minn.; Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass.; and Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., have collectively come to be known by that label since taking office in January. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar Win Landslide Victories U.S. Representatives Ilhan Omar (D-Minnesota) and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York) take part in a press conference. Two members of the coalition of congressional representatives who call themselves “The Squad” have handily won reelection to their House seats.
In videos posted Thursday night, far-left U.S. Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar push for a seemingly socialist overhaul of the U.S. government in reaction to the coronavirus outbreak.
Ocasio And Omar Rivera
The first-term progressive Democratic congresswomen, from New York and Minnesota, respectively, call for the removal of a “profit motive” from lawmakers’ decisions and the “nationalization” of the nation’s health care system.
They and other Democrats have been critical of President Trump’s decision to allow the governors and legislatures of the nation’s 50 states, as well as U.S. territories, to largely set their own strategies for reacting to the virus – which has affected regions to varying degrees.
The videos were posted on Twitter by The Hill but it was unclear exactly when they were recorded. Ocasio-Cortez and Omar each present their views on how they would alter the current federal efforts to combat the spread of the virus.
Their remarks came as President Trump’s job-approval rating reached a record high in a Fox News Poll released Thursday. The same poll showed a majority (51 percent) specifically approved of Trump’s handling of the federal coronavirus response effort.
Ocasio And Omar Rivero
“For some reason we have an enormous problem with enacting the Defense Production Act for saving lives and guaranteeing health care,” Ocasio-Cortez says in her video, referring to the Korean War-era legislation that allows the president to order private companies to produce goods deemed as vital to national interests.
In late March, President Trump invoked the act to direct General Motors to begin producing ventilators for the nation’s hospitals.
Nevertheless, Ocasio-Cortez claims the U.S. faces “a much deeper problem with the systemic priorities that we currently have in the United States.
Ocasio Cortez And Omar
“But it’s never too late to change it,” she adds. “We must organize to change those priorities from our budget to our production.
“We have to start demanding and organizing from the bottom up -- from grassroots movements, from nurses to warehouse workers to grocery store employees to the halls of Congress, demanding that we strip profit motive out of our decisions and reprioritize for the public good and the health of everyday people.”
Ocasio And Omar Diaz
Omar: States 'at disadvantage'
Meanwhile, Omar takes aim at the Trump administration’s policy of promoting state autonomy.
“The states themselves are being put at disadvantage when we have the federal government bidding against them” for medical equipment, Omar argues.
“Big corporations may not want to produce necessary items because it’s not profitable for them. That’s already, I think, understood right now by many of the public and we’re hearing so many people raise their voices every single day and we’re actually addressing the systematic problem that we have where we create a hierarchy and profits are always placed above people.”
In mid-March, Omar uncharacteristcally praised Trump for suspending mortgage foreclosures and invoking the Defense Production Act, calling the moves 'incredible and the right response in this critical time.'
But by early April she was back to criticizing the president, comparing the daily White House coronavirus briefings to a 'train wreck.' Her recent video continued the criticism.
“As a federal government we have the proper tools to deploy and it’s deplorable, really, and unconscionable that every single tool that we have is not being deployed right now and it’s shameful that we continue to put lives at risk.
“And so it is important for us to nationalize the supply chain, it’s important for us to take action in nationalizing our health care system. It’s important for us to really the make the call for the nationalization of our supply chain and our health care system.”
Both Ocasio-Cortez and Omar endorsed self-described democratic socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., for president but Sanders this week announced the suspension of his campaign following a string of Democratic primary losses to former Vice President Joe Biden.