Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) said Wednesday on MSNBC’s “The Rachel Maddow Show” that President Joe Biden’s $2 trillion infrastructure plan over eight years is not big or fast enough.
Ocasio-Cortez said, “I think that the vision that President Biden and the administration has laid out, you’re right, has surprised a lot of us in a positive way, and in the detail and the thought that’s here, the scope of it is really encouraging except I think the how that $2.2 trillion, $2.25 trillion over eight years, I have serious concerns that it’s not enough to realize the very inspiring vision that Biden has advanced. So I believe that those of us here, especially as progressives within the Democratic Party — we know that there is so much more opportunity here. In order for us to realize this inspiring vision, we need to go way higher. That’s what’s going to help us actually deliver on this really promising and inspiring vision the president laid out today.”
She continued, “I think that we need to really have some shorter timelines, some urgency, greater urgency in this package, and I think some of the investments need to be greater.”
She added, “We’re looking at ideals and what we think is the actual investment that can create tens of millions of good union jobs in this country that can shore up our health care, our infrastructure, our housing, and doing it in a way that draws down our carbon figures to help us get in line with IPCC standards we’re talking about realistically $10 trillion over ten years. And I know that may be an eye-popping figure for some people, but we need to understand that we are in a devastating economic moment. Millions of people in the United States are unemployed. We have a truly crippled health-care system and a planetary crisis on our hands. We’re the wealthiest nation in the history of the world. So we can do $10 trillion.”
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN
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