AOC: Expiration of Child Tax Credit to Blame for Rising Crime in NYC

Far-left Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) correlated increasing thefts in New York City to the expiration of the child tax credit in an interview published on Monday, Fox News reported.

While speaking with the New Yorker for a “wide-ranging” interview, Ocasio-Cortez said she has been told by “hospitals, doctors and social workers” that the increase in violence is mainly being caused by young men.

“And we allow the discourse to make it sound as though it’s, like, these shady figures in the bush jumping out from a corner. These are young men. These are boys. We’re also not discussing the mental health crisis that we are experiencing as a country as a result of the pandemic,” she said.

The report continues: 

She pointed out that the child tax credit, which was seen as a lifeline to many families, expired on Dec. 31 “and now people are stealing baby formula.”

The child tax credit was part of President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package. Biden wanted to extend the program for another year but was thwarted by Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV), who argued the money would “discourage people from working” and aggravate inflation even further, according to the outlet.

“We don’t want to have that discussion. We want to say these people are criminals or we want to talk about “people who are violent,” instead of ‘environments of violence,’ and what we’re doing to either contribute to that or dismantle that,” the congresswoman said. 

Fox News noted that the day the interview was published, an Asian American woman was stabbed to death in her Chinatown apartment. Police said a homeless man followed her inside, the New York Post reported. 

Ocasio-Cortez’s office did not respond to a request for comment from Fox News.