U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez speaking at Corona town hall.
Photo by Corey Torpie
U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez held a town hall Friday, May 26, in Corona to discuss the debt limit, immigration and funding for local projects, among other topics.
AOC described the debt ceiling as being a very serious issue at the moment. She said it isn’t normal to see a fight over the debt limit between House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and President Joe Biden.
“The debt limit is about paying for the programs that have already been voted on and authorized,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “[The Republicans in the House] have run up a bill and now they’re trying to not pay that bill in order to try to secure cuts to our essential services and other really critical programs. This is not a normal thing.”
AOC also warned about the consequences of not raising the debt limit. Those reliant upon programs like Medicare, social security checks, SNAP and other federally funded programs may be impacted the most. Additional federal programs and services like air traffic control or critical infrastructure could also be disrupted, according to AOC.
“The debt limit has never been negotiated,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “This is not a normal thing to be politicized because it is irresponsible to politicize this. We have those debates [on spending and other related topics] in the budget process and in the government funding process, but we do not have those debates during the debt limit negotiation because this is about paying for bills that have already been voted for and authorized.”
When discussing immigration, AOC mentioned how Title 42, passed during the early days of the pandemic, has since become weaponized to deport immigrants out of the United States. There were concerns that once Title 42 expired, there would be a significant increase in border crossings. However, since it ended on May 11, AOC said the opposite has been true thus far.
According to AOC, from an economic…
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