Posted on 11/09/2018 12:34:47 PM PST by Kaslin
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the youngest woman elected to Congress and a Democratic socialist, told The New York Times Wednesday that she can’t afford an apartment in D.C. until she gets her Congressional salary in three months.
Ocasio-Cortez, 29, said the transition period will be “very unusual, because I can’t really take a salary. I have three months without a salary before I’m a member of Congress. So, how do I get an apartment? Those little things are very real.”
She added that she has saved money before leaving her bartending job and “planned accordingly with her partner.”
“We’re kind of just dealing with the logistics of it day by day, but I’ve really been just kind of squirreling away and then hoping that gets me to January,” she said.
Ocasio-Cortez tweeted about the issue Thursday arguing that it was an example of “many little ways in which our electoral system isn’t even designed (nor prepared) for working-class people to lead.”
There are many little ways in which our electoral system isn’t even designed (nor prepared) for working-class people to lead.
This is one of them (don’t worry btw - we’re working it out!)
?? https://t.co/PEQ5ccSDSO— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@Ocasio2018) November 8, 2018
NBC noted that Ocasio-Cortez will make $174,000 a year as a member of Congress and that the median rent for a one-bedroom apartment in D.C. is $2,170 a month, making it the seventh-highest rent in the nation.
However, Ocasio-Cortez is moving from New York which has the second highest median rent in the nation for a one bedroom apartment costing $2,850 a month.
As Townhall noted earlier this year, reports, including from Harvard and the New Democrat Coalition, indicate that the affordable housing crisis is exacerbated by burdensome government regulations.
According to one recent report, released in June by the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) and the National Multifamily Housing Council (NMHC), “regulation imposed by all levels of government accounts for an average of 32.1 percent of multifamily development costs,” and “in a quarter of cases, that number can reach as high as 42.6 percent.”
Ocasio-Cortez believes that housing is "a human right" and "Congress must tip the balance away from housing as a gambling chip for Wall Street banks and fight for accessible housing that's actually within working families' reach."
Her solution to the crisis, however, is not deregulation but costly government intervention. She wants to "give tax benefits to working- and middle-class homeowners, expand the Low Income Housing Tax Credit, provide housing for the homeless, and permanently fund the National Affordable Housing Trust Fund."
Some on Twitter who disagreed with her politically did sympathize with her difficulty with the cost of housing in the city.
I am no fan of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, but I'm a bit mystified that people are making fun of her for having trouble finding/affording housing in DC. That's, uh, a very relatable problem!— Robby Soave (@robbysoave) November 9, 2018
This is actually correct. There, I said it, OCASIO-CORTEZ IS RIGHT. https://t.co/jAeeTYTMsK— Ben Domenech (@bdomenech) November 9, 2018
re: “Other congressmen sleep in their offices. She can too.”
Dick Armey slept on a cot in the House gym when he came to Washington in 1985 until he was evicted by then-Speaker Tip O’Neill.
“Their House Away From Home : Republican reps say sleeping in their offices is efficient. Democrats call it a gimmick.”
April 18, 1995
http://articles.latimes.com/1995-04-18/news/ls-55818_1_house-office-building
It’s bs
If your poor or working class
You have housemates and pay 500$
When you get areal job. You get your own apt
When you get married ( and you don’t live in Marin co ) you get a house
This is called real life if your not a spoiled rich kid
I hear these days kids don’t use this progression. They live with mom
You can’t possibly get areal girlfriend if you live with mommy
Roommates also are a pain Too. That’s why you motivate to get your own place
It’s called life
There are some neighborhoods in DC that are not outrageous right around The Potomic Gardens housing project. But you would never get a liberal to live there...
LMAO
When you get a room in house.
No first and last
Someone else is on lease
Very easy to move
She can always take in more bribes.
Everyone should have the right to affordable housing in the most expensive real estate markets in the world, natch.
Go work a corner.
Yeah well she may be surprised to learn that the constituents answer to this is to drop their pay by about $100 grand a year and build them shared dorms with bunk beds and no services. Maybe then they’d spend time in their district where they belong.
Actually, if it was up to me I’d just shut DC down and send them all back to their districts for good. In this technological age there’s no reason for them to be there.
I'll say one thing, this nut job is going to be entertaining.
She has money available to her from her campaign funds. These funds can be used for interim expenses. She is blowing smoke.
She could sell her teeth
Why doens’t Soros pay for her apartment?
Why doesnt the princess take another job till January ???
Wait table...wash dishes...
Oh, poor baby. That $2170/month rent would only be 15% of her income. Many people have to pay to 25% of their income for housing, which in her case would be $3600/month and would leave the poor little snowflake with only $10,900/month for food and utilities.
She’s nuts——and looking for someone to foot the bill.
My granddaughter just started working in the DC area,just out of college-———and she has a roommate to split expenses.
That’s what young people with a brain usually do.
.
Try Arlington. Full with Hispanics and cheaper. Ride bus or metro to work. One bedroom for 1300. My son has one there.
No, it highlights her essential stupidity (as if we needed confirmation of that, after hearing ANYTHING that she said since coming on to the public scene).
Sheesh, she has a guaranteed salary of $174,000/year for the next 2 years. Plus just a little bit of influence because of the job that will pay her that salary. I refuse to believe that some bank won’t loan her $10K or $15K so that she can rent and furnish the apartment.
She’s just a f’ing moron, who likely has to be told to come in when it starts raining, and who has to be told to clean dog crap off of her shoes before entering someone’s home.
-—I refuse to believe that some bank won’t loan her $10K——
Credit cards maxed. Credit score 480
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