Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) claimed victory after Amazon announced its intention to lease office space in Manhattan, news which followed the lawmaker’s efforts to prevent the company from putting its second headquarters in New York City, which would have created 25,000 jobs.
Ocasio-Cortez celebrated the reports indicating that Amazon agreed to lease a 335,000-square-foot office space in Manhattan opening in 2021, which will bring an estimated 1,500 jobs to the area.
The news follows Amazon’s decision to back out of a deal to move its HQ2 project to Long Island City, which “could have created between 25,000 and 40,000 jobs with an average salary of $150,000,” as Breitbart News reported. Ocasio-Cortez opposed the idea due to the agreement’s “tax breaks and financial incentives” and celebrated Amazon’s decision to ditch the plan as a victory over “corporate greed.”
“Won’t you look at that: Amazon is coming to NYC anyway – *without* requiring the public to finance shady deals, helipad handouts for Jeff Bezos, & corporate giveaways,” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted following Friday’s announcement.
“Maybe the Trump admin should focus more on cutting public assistance to billionaires instead of poor families,” she added:
She also posted a picture of herself sitting smugly on a couch with the caption, “Me waiting on the haters to apologize after we were proven right on Amazon and saved the public billions”:
However, critics were quick to point out that her victory lap is unwarranted, as Amazon’s current plan brings significantly fewer jobs, and the location is not within her district.
“I’m thanking her! Amazon is going up in my town instead. We need the jobs!” one user wrote.
“You realize you still cost your own district tens of thousands of jobs, right? And since Amazon isn’t building you also cost the city billions in revenue,” another added. “This is such an odd and sad victory lap. lol.”
“She caused a 25,000 job expansion in NY to go to 1,500 jobs in a rented space,” another remarked.
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