New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said President Trump was leveraging the coronavirus pandemic to give top companies a bailout instead of prioritizing policies for the working class.
The freshman Democrat slammed the economic details of a payroll tax that was included in a tweet shared by Fox News’s John Roberts on Tuesday morning.
“This is unacceptable,” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted. “Trump is using this public health crisis as an opportunity to push tax cuts and corporate bailouts.”
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This is unacceptable.
Trump is using this public health crisis as an opportunity to push tax cuts and corporate bailouts.
This is an emergency. We need to help vulnerable people & small biz now w/ paid leave, extended unemployment, UBI, Medicaid expansion,&mortgage suspensions. https://t.co/kOAK3sTFdK
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) March 17, 2020
The tweet from Roberts noted the economic stimulus package Trump plans to ask of Congress next week, including $500 billion in payroll tax cuts, $58 billion for the airline industry, and $250 billion in Small Business Association loans.
On Tuesday, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Trump wanted to send checks to workers as part of a huge bailout package.
“The payroll tax holiday would get people money over the next six to eight months,” Mnuchin said at a White House news briefing on the coronavirus. “We’re looking at sending checks to Americans immediately.”
Mnuchin also said the Treasury Department would aim to allow $300 billion in tax deferrals to combat the coronavirus pandemic, a major increase from what was previously announced. He said that individuals could defer up to $1 million and corporations could defer $10 million in tax payments to the federal government without being charged for penalties and interest. The delay in filing and paying taxes will be for 90 days.
Ocasio-Cortez argued the measures do not adequately lift workers, many of whom are worried about their financial situation during the national emergency.
“This is an emergency,” the liberal Democrat tweeted. “We need to help vulnerable people & small biz now w/ paid leave, extended unemployment, [universal basic income], Medicaid expansion, & mortgage suspensions.”
There have been around 190,000 confirmed coronavirus cases around the world, 80,600 recoveries, and 7,500 deaths, according to the latest reading by the Johns Hopkins University tracker. In the United States, there have been 5,600 cases, 17 recoveries, and 94 deaths.
