Ivanka Trump & Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Square Off on Twitter Over the Average American's Pay Check
After Ivanka Trump dismissed Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez‘s Green New Deal proposal, the freshman representative is firing back.
During an interview with Fox News, Trump, 37, who serves as a senior White House adviser, was asked about Ocasio-Cortez’s manifesto and how she feels about people who may be sold on the proposal’s to ensure jobs provide a wage which can sustain a family.
“I don’t think most Americans in their heart want to be given something,” Trump said.
“I’ve spent a lot of time traveling around this country over the last four years. People want to work for what they get, so I think this idea of a guaranteed minimum is not something most people want.”
“They want the ability to be able to secure a job. They want the ability to live in a country where there’s potential for upward mobility.”
Ocasio-Cortez, 29, and Sen. Ed Markey of Massachusetts introduced a Green New Deal on Feb. 7.
The goals of the Green New Deal are achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions, creating jobs, providing for a just transition and securing clean air and water, Vox explains.
Toward the bottom of the document, Ocasio-Cortez and Markey list a resolution that reads, “guaranteeing a job with a family-sustaining wage, adequate family and disability leave, paid vacations, and retirement security to all people of the United States.”
After Trump’s Fox interview was released, Ocasio-Cortez responded to the First Daughter’s criticism on Twitter.
“As a person who actually worked for tips & hourly wages in my life, instead of having to learn about it 2nd-hand, I can tell you that most people want to be paid enough to live,” the New Yorker wrote without mentioning Trump by name.
“A living wage isn’t a gift. it’s a right. Workers are often paid far less than the value they create,” Ocasio-Cortez continued.
As a person who actually worked for tips & hourly wages in my life, instead of having to learn about it 2nd-hand, I can tell you that most people want to be paid enough to live.
A living wage isn’t a gift, it’s a right. Workers are often paid far less than the value they create. https://t.co/P5FsQuhCTW— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) February 26, 2019
“In fact, wages are so low today compared to actual worker productivity that they are no longer the reflections of worker value as they used to be.”
“Productivity has grown 6.2x more pay,” Ocasio-Cortez added.
Ivanka also used Twitter to discuss the issue but did not criticize Ocasio-Cortez directly but instead criticized a news story that said she was challenging Ocasio-Cortez’s minimum wage platform.
“No I did not. I support a minimum wage. I do not however believe in a minimum guarantee for people “unwilling to work” which was the question asked of me,” Ivanka tweeted.
I’ve spent much of the last 2 years focused on inclusive economic growth via workforce development and skills training as well as pro-working family policies such as the doubled Child Tax Credit & CCDBG.
— Ivanka Trump (@IvankaTrump) February 26, 2019
Ocasio-Cortez was sworn in as a U.S. Representative for New York’s 14th congressional district on Jan. 3.
The congresswoman has been vocal about her feelings toward President Donald Trump, recently telling 60 Minutes in January there is “no question” that the president is racist.
“When you look at the words that he uses … when you look at how he reacted to the Charlottesville incident, where neo-Nazis murdered a woman, versus how he manufactures crises like immigrants seeking legal refuge on our borders, it’s night and day,” Ocasio-Cortez explained to correspondent Anderson Cooper.
With Charlottesville, Ocasio-Cortez was referring to the president’s remarks after a counter-protestor was murdered at a far-right rally in Virginia in 2017. In the aftermath, Trump said there was “blame on both sides.”
At the same time, Ocasio-Cortez said, “I think he’s a symptom of a problem.”
“The president certainly didn’t invent racism, but he’s certainly given a voice to it and expanded it and created a platform for those things,” she said.
