Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a freshman Democratic representative from New York, said this week that most Americans feel one of the biggest issues facing the country is the level of income inequality.
Her exact words in The Hill were, "The vast majority of Americans know that income inequality is one of the biggest issues of our time."
Read more: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez v. banks: NYC rep to join influential House committee
In a follow-up, she said teachers shouldn't sell blood to pay basic bills and necessities, and that there shouldn't be a society where full-time employees on food stamps should coexist with "billionaires with helipads."
Ever since the 29-year-old stormed onto the political landscape last fall, she has drawn more and more admiration from the left and more ire from the right. Regardless, she has soared past all other political heavyweights in social media following. So anytime she sends out a tweet, there's rapid and immediate response — and questions.
And it's not like Ocasio-Cortez ignores them. She answers just about all of them, even when one follower asked her: "What, precisely, is the correct level of income inequality for you, @AOC? Is there a distribution you are shooting for? Should everyone be equal?"
Ocasio-Cortez didn't necessarily say all income should be equal, but said the level could narrow between the wealthiest Americans and those full-time workers living paycheck to paycheck.
"Somewhere between "teachers shouldn't have to sell their own blood to make rent" & "billionaires with helipads and full-time workers on food stamps shouldn't exist in the same society."
It didn't take long for the congresswoman to get 26,000 likes, 1,000 replies and nearly 6,000 retweets.
Of course, taxes vary by city, county and state around the country, as do wages and costs of living.
Ocasio-Cortez recently got into a social media joust with conservative Candace Owens, who said Cortez was "so fiscally irresponsible that she hadn't saved up enough money to rent an apartment in the Washington D.C. area… But sure, let's trust her with the future fiscal-planning of America."
Ocasio-Cortez already has an apartment in New York and has been tasked with finding a second one in Washington — nothing new for congress members to have dual places to live. Her two apartments are both high-rent cities, so she snapped back at Owens.
"The thing Republicans taking cheap shots forget to mention is that it's about having trouble affording a SECOND apartment," Ocasio-Cortez tweeted. "I live in the Bronx and work in DC. Need a spot in both. But I understand how they can't conceive of a life where people don't casually maintain 2 homes."
Also, the freshman congresswoman hasn't backed down from aggressive, far-left policies, like when she proposed a 70 percent tax on the country's wealthiest individuals in order to help pay for a Green New Deal, which is one of the proposed solutions for climate change.
Ocasio-Cortez has also championed many socialist-Democrat views that Bernie Sanders became famous for touting, like free college tuition and free or inexpensive healthcare.
She also took a jab at former Sen. Joe Lieberman, who was the vice-president nominee on the 2000 ticket with Democrat presidential hopeful Al Gore. When Gore said Ocasio-Cortez wasn't the new face of the Democrat Party, she said: "New party, who dis?"
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Scott McDonald is a Newsweek deputy night editor based in Cape Coral, Florida. His focus is assigning and writing stories ... Read more
To read how Newsweek uses AI as a newsroom tool, Click here.