Ocasio-Cortez says she’s voting against debt limit bill https://thehill.com/homenews/house/4027503-ocasio-cortez-says-shes-voting-against-debt-limit-bill/ of course she is
Incompetent Elected Official Of The Month: Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D.-NY) https://ethicsalarms.com/2023/05/31...-the-month-rep-alexandria-ocasio-cortez-d-ny/ excerpt: . . . If AOC thinks it’s “impersonating” her, then she must think a tweet like “Every time my boyfriend farts – I make him plant a tree to offset his carbon emissions” is something she might reasonably be expected to say. And, come to think of it, that would not have been out of place in her “Green New Deal.” . . . She apparently hasn’t heard of “The Streisand Effect,” in which complaining about something a celebrity finds annoying guarantees that more people will become aware of it. Elon Musk didn’t “boost visibility” a tenth as much as AOC’s whining. Funny: in the Fifties, Sixties and Seventies, not a single politician or celebrity publicly complained about Mad Magazine regularly making fun of them. They could figure out that doing so would make them look petty, stuffy, and foolish, while encouraging their critics. It’s not a hard calculation, but AOC is apparently incapable of it. . . . Does she really think parody tweets like “If the government can print money, citizens should be allowed to. If we had money printers in each household, everyone would be rich and the economy would be booming” is a “fake policy statement”? The proper term is “joke.” But it takes wit and humility for a politician to appreciate gags aimed her way. Indeed, progressives increasingly reject humor, unless it denigrates Donald Trump. more at the link
Ocasio-Cortez joins other squad members in boycotting Modi speech https://thehill.com/homenews/house/...ther-squad-members-in-boycotting-modi-speech/ excerpt: Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) is joining other progressives in boycotting Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's joint address to Congress. In a tweet, the New York Democrat urged her colleagues who stand for "pluralism, tolerance and freedom of speech" to join her boycott. Ocasio-Cortez highlighted Modi's previous ban from entering the U.S. and reports from the State Department on India's record on religious freedoms, as well as the country's current ranking in the Press Freedom Index. "A joint address is among the most prestigious invitations and honors the United States Congress can extend. We should not do so for individuals with deeply troubling human rights records - particularly for individuals whom our own State Department has concluded are engaged in systematic human rights abuses of religious minorities and caste-oppressed communities," Ocasio-Cortez added. Her statement comes a day after Reps. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) and Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), the two Muslim women in Congress, said they would not be attending the Indian leader's speech. more at the link
OT, you may want to read this first. How India is turning into a dictatorship under Modi Indian opposition leader Rahul Gandhi was sentenced to two years in prison on March 20, which rid Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi of his primary rival in the lead-up to the upcoming elections. The Prime Minister's concern regarding his position in power is justified, as polls indicate that the government's public support, particularly among young people, is diminishing. Modi initially presented himself as a competent manager during his early years in office, but his economic policies have encountered questionable outcomes, and he is compensating for his lack of popularity by implementing more authoritarian measures. For the first time in decades, international organizations such as Freedom House have excluded India from the category of free countries
Biden Plans Lavish Formal Welcome for Modi as He Seeks to Bolster Ties President Biden will host Prime Minister Narendra Modi for meetings and a state dinner, only the third since Mr. Biden took office two and a half years ago. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/22/us/politics/biden-modi-state-visit.html
AOC making some sense for a change Ocasio-Cortez: ‘DeSantis has made some very large, critical errors’ https://thehill.com/homenews/campai...tis-has-made-some-very-large-critical-errors/
this hits a little too close to home https://www.wsj.com/articles/aoc-re...t-earners-new-york-4c75da01?mod=hp_opin_pos_1 AOC Redefines the Term ‘Rich’ Forget about the 1%. She wants to raise taxes on households earning $250,000. By Tim Hoefer Oct. 2, 2023 at 6:11 pm ET Albany, N.Y. New York socialists calling for higher taxes aim to spread the tax net far beyond Wall Street, scooping up folks on Main Street—especially in the suburbs. Bemoaning “violent budget cuts” at New York City agencies, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and her ideological allies are calling on the city and state to “fund resources for all New Yorkers” by raising taxes on the top 5% of New Yorkers. Considering the left’s prior focus on “the 1%,” this is a major development. The top 1% of New Yorkers begins just south of $1 million in adjusted gross income. But the top 5% begins a little above $250,000—translating into married couples making $127,000 each. More than 168,000 New York state and local government employees were paid more than $127,000 last year. Forty-five New York school districts paid most of their teachers and administrators at least that much, and about 70 police or fire departments had mean pay above that line. The move from targeting the top 1% to the top 5% is a recognition that the socialist program, to borrow from Margaret Thatcher, risks running out of other people’s money. New York’s finance-linked tax base is especially fragile. Because the state’s coffers depend on volatile investment-related income, receipts fluctuate with markets and capital gains. A further vulnerability for the state’s tax system is that the explosion of remote work has employees less geographically tethered to New York. An hourlong drive to Connecticut can let a Manhattanite slice his state income-tax bill in half, while a willingness to decamp to Florida, New Hampshire or Tennessee can eliminate it. Tax-migration data indicate that more high earners left in 2021 than in 2019, to Ron DeSantis’s delight. Years of making the tax code more progressive means the top 1% of filers account for 46% of state income tax liability. The top 5%’s share is 64%. Accepting socialists’ premises about needing more money, targeting the 5% makes sense. Full-year resident New York households and individuals earning between $250,000 and $5 million together have considerably more taxable income ($583 billion) than those making $5 million or more ($435 billion). But the socialists’ premises can’t be accepted. New York has the nation’s highest-spending K-12 public-school system, but student outcomes are middling. The state spends more on Medicaid than Texas and Florida combined. New York agencies also pay some of the world’s highest prices for infrastructure. More hasn’t been, nor will it ever be, enough. Gov. Kathy Hochul has thus far resisted this and other calls for economically destructive tax hikes, even as she grapples with looming budget shortfalls. And while New Yorkers haven’t widely objected to past calls to “tax the rich,” that may change now that so many have been invited into the category. Mr. Hoefer is president and CEO of the Empire Center for Public Policy. Appeared in the October 3, 2023, print edition as 'AOC Redefines the Term ‘Rich’'.
