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September 18, 2018

Ocasio-Cortez Deflects on Socialism Price Tag

She’s unable to answer how she plans to pay for the huge cost of programs she advocates.

“Socialist governments traditionally do make a financial mess. They always run out of other people’s money,” Margaret Thatcher famously quipped. And to this day socialists like Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have failed to solve that fundamental dilemma. This point was driven home when Ocasio-Cortez was asked by CNN’s Jake Tapper how she planned to fund her socialist policies — free college, housing as a federal right, and Medicare for All. Tapper first noted that her polices would cost upwards of $40 trillion over 10 years while only an estimated $2 trillion would be grossed from raising taxes on the wealthy. “So where is the other $38 trillion going to come from?” he asked.

Responding almost as if she didn’t hear or understand the question, Ocasio-Cortez insisted, “Medicare for all would save the American people a very large amount of money.” She then jumped on the same tired and debunked talking points about the supposed superiority of socialized single-payer health care systems in Europe, asserting, “These investments are better and they are good for our future.”

But Tapper wouldn’t let her off the hook that easily and pressed, “I get that. But the price tag for everything you’ve laid out in your campaign is $40 trillion. … That’s quite a bit of money.” In other words, how do you plan to actually pay for this. After more obfuscation from Ocasio-Cortez — including denying that her ideas were “pie in the sky” — Tapper finally interrupted her to say, “I’m assuming I’m not going to get an answer for the other $38 trillion.”

No, because she has no answer. For leftists like Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez, socialism is the perfect government solution to the myriad problems Americans face, and any questions about implementation or payment only serve to confuse people who would otherwise be jumping on board the moral crusade.

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