AOC Shuts Down Reporter’s Socialism-to-Communism Question: “We Can’t Even Raise the Minimum Wage”

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., called the belief that socialism necessarily ends up with communism as “very silly” in an interview with a reporter in the Capitol building.

The conversation began with the reporter stating that they were not trying to judge anyone’s belief.

“They can do what they want. I don’t, I’m not here to be the belief police around here,” the reporter said. “But isn’t there a concern that, you know, this slippery slope towards socialism inevitably ends up as full-blown communism?”

Ocasio-Cortez brushed off the premise.

“I mean, no, no. I’m not concerned about America turning into a communist country in like a year,” she said. “I think that is, uh, I’m sorry. I think that that’s, um, I think it’s very silly.”

“I agree,” the reporter said.

She used the example of the federal minimum wage, which has remained at $7.25 an hour since 2009, to illustrate the point.

“You just think about how impossible it has been to raise the minimum wage in America in 10, 15, 20 years,” Ocasio-Cortez continued. “We can’t even raise the minimum wage. Do Republicans really think that this stuff is going to happen? No, they don’t. They’re trying to scare people because they don’t want us talking about the fact that we all have a right to health care in this country.”

She claimed that Republicans tried to silence the discussion about health care through the use of the word “communist”.

“So they want to call it communist, and they want to call everything they don’t like communist because if people actually wake up to the fact that their elected officials are screwing them over when they get here, then they’re going to realize that they deserve better and that health care as a right isn’t crazy,” she said. “It isn’t pie in the sky.”

She argued that voters, upon seeing the difference between the U.S. and other rich countries in health care, would make the change they wanted.

“They want to call this stuff communist because they don’t want us to realize that the rest of the developed world has guaranteed health care in this country,” she said. “So they want to call it communist because they don’t want you to know that Germany, Italy, the UK, Canada, everybody else has it better than us. And we spent the most amount of money for the worst care in the modern developed world.”

The U.S. is spending more money per capita on health care than other wealthy countries, yet has poorer life expectancy and infant mortality rates.

Ocasio-Cortez added that Democrats have promised to pass health care legislation when they gain power.

“But Democrats will say the moment they regain power, uh, they will pass this,” she said.

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