Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Rages over Relief Bill: ‘There Should Be Shame’

NEW YORK, NY - DECEMBER 14: U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) speaks with members
Yana Paskova/Getty

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) blasted the bipartisan economic relief package passed by the House on Friday, declaring that there “should be shame for what was fought for in this bill.”

“What did the Senate majority fight for?!” Ocasio-Cortez asked on the House floor prior to the passage of the measure.

“One of the largest corporate bailouts with as few strings as possible in American history. Shameful! The greed of that fight is wrong for crumbs for our families,” she said of the coronavirus relief measure, which the Senate passed unanimously on Wednesday.

Ocasio-Cortez declared that the emergency relief bill, which provides $350 billion in forgivable loans for small businesses and features $1,200 payments for most U.S. adults, will only further the wealth gap.

“The option that we have is to either let them suffer with nothing, or to allow this greed and billions of dollars which will be leveraged into trillions of dollars to contribute to the largest income inequality gap in our future,” she said.

“There should be shame for what was fought for in this bill, and the choices we have to make,” she added:

Ocasio-Cortez previewed her disappointment with the bipartisan measure on Thursday, expressing disgust that the cash payment portion of the bill does not extend to non-citizens, whether legal or illegal.

“To clarify, $1200 checks are ONLY going to some w/social sec numbers, NOT immigrants w/ tax IDs (ITINs),” she wrote in part.

“Thanks to GOP, these checks will be cut off the backs of *taxpaying immigrants,* who get nothing,” she added:

Ocasio-Cortez’s outrage follows House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) failed attempt to hijack the economic relief package with her own version, which featured a host of progressive agenda items, from Planned Parenthood funding to ballot harvesting to Green New Deal initiatives.

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