Thread: After Five Months In Congress, Ocasio-Cortez Wants A Raise!

In your wildest dreams; you could not make this up



After Five Months In Congress, Ocasio-Cortez Wants A Raise!

June 11, 2019, 11:34 am by Joseph Curl 13 Comments

Federal lawmakers make bank.

A representative in the House makes $174,000 a year. That’s not exactly a “1 percenter” salary, but nearly quadruple the current median annual income in America. Not to mention the fact that they all have access to the best — and least expensive — health care in the country … for life.That wasn’t enough for some members of the House. The Democratic-controlled chamber proffered a new salary of $178,500, a $4,500 raise. But even some Democrats balked at the raise, and the whole effort was scrubbed on Monday.
“It needs more discussion,” House Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Nita Lowey, (D-N.Y.) told Fox News.Enter New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a Democratic socialist and former bartender who has been in the House since January. She said the money was, like, no big deal.“It’s not even like a raise,” Ocasio-Cortez said. She said efforts to oppose the raise were “superficial. … This is why there’s so much pressure to turn to lobbying firms and to cash in on member service after people leave, because precisely of this issue.”She said all people deserve to make more money — especially her.


“It may be politically convenient, and it may make you look good in the short term for saying, ‘Oh we’re not voting for pay increases,’ but we should be fighting for pay increases for every American worker,” she said. “We should be fighting for a $15 minimum wage pegged to inflation so that everybody in the United States with a salary with a wage gets a cost of living increase. Members of Congress, retail workers, everybody should get cost of living increases to accommodate for the changes in our economy.“And then when we don’t do that, it only increases the pressure on members to exploit loopholes like insider-trading loopholes, to make it on the back end,” she said.AOC is decidedly generous with money — at least other people’s money. When she took office, she declared that no staffer in her office would make less than $52,000 a year.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
✔ @AOC

Leadership starts with our choices.

That’s why I decided that no one on my staff will make less than $52k/year.

It’s likely one of the highest entry-level salaries on the Hill. We pinch pennies elsewhere, but it’s worth every dime to pay a living wage.https://www.rollcall.com/news/congress/alexandria-ocasio-cortezs-call-living-wage-starts-office …

141K
10:27 PM - Feb 22, 2019
Twitter Ads info and privacy

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s call for a ‘living wage’ starts in her office

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has introduced an unusual office policy that no one on her staff will make less than $52,000 a year.
rollcall.com

38.8K people are talking about this

That’s a good bit more than some staffers in the White House make, but hey, AOC gets $1 million from the taxpayers to dole out to her staff, so no biggie.On Tuesday, AOC again defended her support for the now-dead raise.“Yep. Voting against cost of living increases for members of Congress may sound nice, but doing so only increases pressure on them to keep dark money loopholes open,” she wrote on Twitter. “This makes campaign finance reform *harder.* ALL workers deserve cost of living increases, incl min wage workers.”“What this does is punish members who rely on a straight salary, and reward those who rely on money loopholes and other forms of self-dealing. For example, it incentivizes the horrible kinds of legislative looting we saw in the GOP tax scam bill.“It’s not a fun or politically popular position to take. But consistency is important. ALL workers should get cost of living increases. That’s why minimum wage should be pegged to inflation, too. Voting against cost of living increases is 1 reason why dark $ loopholes stay open.”

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
✔ @AOC

Yep. Voting against cost of living increases for members of Congress may sound nice, but doing so only increases pressure on them to keep dark money loopholes open.

This makes campaign finance reform *harder.*

ALL workers deserve cost of living increases, incl min wage workers.

Matt Stoller
✔ @matthewstoller


This is just so stupid. You get what you pay for and if you cut the pay of public servants for a decade you get bribery and corruption. https://politi.co/2I72HgE

14.3K
7:22 AM - Jun 11, 2019
Twitter Ads info and privacy

5,933 people are talking about this

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
✔ @AOC

· 5h

Yep. Voting against cost of living increases for members of Congress may sound nice, but doing so only increases pressure on them to keep dark money loopholes open.

This makes campaign finance reform *harder.*

ALL workers deserve cost of living increases, incl min wage workers.

Matt Stoller
✔ @matthewstoller

This is just so stupid. You get what you pay for and if you cut the pay of public servants for a decade you get bribery and corruption. https://politi.co/2I72HgE

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
✔ @AOC

What this does is punish members who rely on a straight salary, and reward those who rely on money loopholes and other forms of self-dealing.

For example, it incentivizes the horrible kinds of legislative looting we saw in the GOP tax scam bill.

9,503
7:26 AM - Jun 11, 2019
Twitter Ads info and privacy

1,457 people are talking about this

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
✔ @AOC

· 5h

Replying to @AOC

What this does is punish members who rely on a straight salary, and reward those who rely on money loopholes and other forms of self-dealing.

For example, it incentivizes the horrible kinds of legislative looting we saw in the GOP tax scam bill.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
✔ @AOC

It’s not a fun or politically popular position to take. But consistency is important.

ALL workers should get cost of living increases. That’s why minimum wage should be pegged to inflation, too.

Voting against cost of living increases is 1 reason why dark $ loopholes stay open.

10.6K
7:32 AM - Jun 11, 2019
Twitter Ads info and privacy

1,995 people are talking about this


AOC also said it’s all better under socialism.“In democratically socialist businesses (like worker co-ops) or methods (like collective bargaining) you actually CAN vote for a worker pay increase. Many do!” she wrote.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
✔ @AOC

In democratically socialist businesses (like worker co-ops) or methods (like collective bargaining) you actually CAN vote for a worker pay increase.

Many do!

We can’t pass these laws bc of big money. This is how you chip at it.

Like I said, it’s not popular but I’m being

iWill @iWill2_

Replying to @AOC

Nah @AOC I disagree with you here. Pass term limits, immigration reform, min. Wage increase first, then you can adjust your salaries for cost of living. I’m sure we all would vote to give ourselves a raise too but we can’t.

4,902
7:40 AM - Jun 11, 2019
Twitter Ads info and privacy

1,506 people are talking about this

She’s being 100.

llllllllllllllllllllllll

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/201...wants-a-raise/

newsamerica-24.com

Ocasio-Cortez Demands A Raise, Lectures Americans Who Oppose It; ‘It’s Not Even, Like, A Raise!’ – News America 24

https://twitter.com/SaraCarterDC/status/1138397225963393024?s=09

What other public servant makes $174k a year? Police officers, Fire fighters, First Responders??? No! #nopayraise

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez wants you to pay her to not be corrupt

Does more money really make greedy people less corrupt?

June 12, 2019
By Monica Showalter

Despite a poll showing that Democrats' proposed congressional pay hike has outraged the public, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez thinks taxpayers ought to be giving her a $4,500 salary hike anyway on her $174,000 annual paycheck ... not just because everyone deserves a raise, but more important, to keep her honest.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
✔ @AOC

Yep. Voting against cost of living increases for members of Congress may sound nice, but doing so only increases pressure on them to keep dark money loopholes open.

This makes campaign finance reform *harder.*

ALL workers deserve cost of living increases, incl min wage workers.

Matt Stoller
✔ @matthewstoller

This is just so stupid. You get what you pay for and if you cut the pay of public servants for a decade you get bribery and corruption. https://politi.co/2I72HgE

24.7K
7:22 AM - Jun 11, 2019
Twitter Ads info and privacy

20.1K people are talking about this

She doubled down on that in a subsequent video:

It's not just that she seeks to justify that pay hike for herself by arguing that she actually wants all workers to get a pay hike (even those "unwilling to work" one can logically infer) and thinks her own hike ought to go through because of that. It's also that she supports the $15 minimum wage, so that justifies an extra $4,500 in her pay packet on her $178,000 salary, which comes to a lot more than $15 an hour.

All by themselves, those issues are problematic - what kind of raise should workers who've been laid off because a $15 minimum wage has been enacted get? How much is a raise x $0? And why should wishing be good enough for workers while Ocasio-Cortez herself is actually getting? And what the heck does a measly $15 minimum wage have to do with someone who's making $174,000 a year, plus perks? Yet Ocasio-Cortez declares the proposed $4,500 pay hike "not even like a raise," topping Nancy Pelosi who took heat last year for declaring $1,000 worker bonuses "crumbs." She's starting to sound like Evita.
Actually, Ocasio-Cortez is a good candidate for a pay cut as Issues & Insights editorialist John Merline notes here:

Even without a raise, she’s pulling down three times what the median household makes in her district.
So here’s a modest proposal. Tie AOC’s salary, and everyone else’s in Congress, directly to the incomes of the people they represent.
That would mean, rather than give AOC a raise, she would make just $58,331. That’s the median household income in her district, according to a cool Census tool called My Congressional District.
At that pay, AOC would truly represent New York’s 14th Congressional District. Exactly half the households would make more than her, and exactly half would make less.
Better still, if she wanted a raise, she’d have to see to it that her local economy is thriving and people in her district are gainfully employed, thereby pushing up the median income.

It makes sense, particularly since she chased Amazon and all its high-paid jobs out of her home district.
But the worst of her claim is the canard that more money makes politicians more honest. That saw has been around for awhile, and sometimes African dictatorships with more bureaucrats than money who supplement their salaries with shakedowns is the rationale. Give them more money and watch them turn honest. Ummm...
It's baloney, and one need look no further than Ocasio-Cortez's home state of New York for proof positive it's not.
Last December, New York's state legislators in Albany voted themselves a massive $50,000 salary hike making themselves the highest paid state legislators in the nation by 2012, with $130,000 a year paychecks. It's still a smaller amount than what Ocasio-Cortez makes right now in Congress.
Is the salary hike going to make that Albany bunch honest? And the New York Times notes that New York City Council members make $148,000 a year, still more than the Albany crew does. By Ocasio-Cortez's logic, are they even more honest, based on their higher salaries? What are we to say about Ocasio-Cortez, who's been busted quite a bit for putting her boyfriend on her payroll and holding fundraisers for her campaign without quite telling people about it? Will more money make her more honest?
While we are on the topic of socialism and sharing the wealth, let's turn to socialism-cubed over in Caracas, Venezuela: Did making Hugo Chavez's ignorant and greedy daughter, Rosines Chavez, a billionaire, somehow make that country more honest? The socialist country ranks 168 out of 175 on Transparency International's 2018 Corruption Perceptions Index. Maybe they'll need to expropriate more money to bone up on that honesty score.
Which goes to show that more money is more power, not more honesty. Maybe someone with a bigger salary can shun sleazy little small-time mordida shakedowns with a bigger salary, but as Joe Biden's son has demonstrated, working in a bigger league doesn't stop dishonesty, it just provides bigger opportunities to steal. Ocasio-Cortez must know that as she brays for a bigger piece of the taxpayer pie. What she wants, though, is for all of us deplorables to be content with her call for a $15 minimum wage.

Follow us: @AmericanThinker on Twitter | AmericanThinker on Facebook

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog...e_corrupt.html

She was literally a bar tender a few months ago and now she is not ok with $174k a year...



breitbart.com

Nolte: Ocasio-Cortez Threatens to Become Corrupt if Not Given Pay Raise

babylonbee.com

Ocasio-Cortez: 'Everyone's Pay Should Be Equal, But My Pay Should Be More Equal Than Others''