USA - Democratic socialist and Congressional candidate Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has slammed Republicans for funding tax cuts and America’s “unlimited war,” while refusing to provide universal healthcare. “People talk about the sticker shock of Medicare-for-all, but not of our existing system," Ocasio-Cortez told CNN's Chris Cuomo. “This is not a pipe dream. Every other nation does this - why can't America?” she added.
The socialist candidate argued that Americans who balk at the cost of single-payer health care need to look at the hidden costs of maintaining the current, mostly-private system. In the US, worker illness and injury costs employers $225.8 billion annually, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
Ocasio-Cortez went on to slam her critics in the GOP for funding President Trump’s tax cuts, and the country’s foreign wars, while neglecting healthcare and education spending. “When it comes to tax cuts for bills and unlimited war," she said, "we seem to invent that money very easily.”
Ocasio-Cortez is optimistic. Medicare-for-all is being seriously talked about by several major Democrat favorites for the 2020 election, as is government-funded college tuition, abolishing Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, and a $15 federal minimum wage, all positions to the left of the Democratic establishment.