Posted on 01/25/2019 1:15:31 PM PST by Kaslin
New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez engaged in heated debates on Twitter today over the credibility of a Washington Post fact check article about her. Here’s what you need to know.
What happened?
Glenn Kessler, fact check columnist for The Washington Post, published an article Thursday about Ocasio-Cortez. In it, the liberal media personality criticized the representative’s statements about the living wage. He wrote in the piece that there is not “a vast majority” of Americans who don’t earn a living wage, despite Ocasio-Cortez’s claims. He also pointed out that both Walmart and Amazon pay workers above the minimum wage, in contradiction to the representative's claims.
When debunking this particular claim, Kessler linked to an online paper from the Mackinac Center, a research organization focused on promoting free market enterprise and limited government. The paper was written by Jason Furman, the former chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers under the Obama administration.
“Even if Ocasio-Cortez were right about the minimum wage,” wrote Kessler. “Her contention that those companies are benefiting from a wealth transfer is dubious. Economic theory generally assumes all costs and benefits of labor-related taxes and benefits are borne by labor — i.e., the worker, not the employer. So wages would be largely unaffected if taxes went up or public assistance went up. And the worker would still get paid the same, even if they had to carry the burden of new taxes or received enhanced benefits.”
From Tweet to Heat
Ocasio-Cortez linked to a now hidden tweet from Andrew Perez, political reporter for the research organization MapLight, who focus on how money plays a role in politics, according to their website. Along with the link, she shared her own thoughts on Kessler’s piece.
If the point of fact-checking is to enforce some objective standard, why would @GlennKesslerWP use a Walmart-funded think tank as reference material for wage fairness?
That’s like citing the foxes to fact-check the hens.
Here’s 4 Geppettos for your contested Pinocchios ???????????????? https://t.co/uERpcjqvwT— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) January 24, 2019
Kessler responded to Ocasio-Cortez in his own tweet. He pointed out that Furman wrote the piece and explained that he linked to the paper for context about “basic economics.”
Check the name of the author: Jason Furman, chairman of Council of Economic Advisers under Obama. He's someone I have known for 20+ years and he is simply citing some basic economics. I included the link only because his discussion of the economics was detailed and thorough.— Glenn Kessler (@GlennKesslerWP) January 24, 2019
Ocasio-Cortez retorted, saying that many people who go into government are only interested in obtaining status and money from lobbyists.
Revolving-door politics doesn’t care what admin a person worked for.
The truth is, many folks come to govmnt to collect a title, & leave to collect a lobbyist check.
WaPo itself touched on this by covering the Harvard Orientation.
You’re legitimizing that by citing this study. https://t.co/wTsgwRu8vf— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) January 25, 2019
That’s when Daniel Drezner, a professor at The Fletcher School and a Washinton Post contributor for Post Everything on Friday, went to Twitter to defend Furman.
Who dis?
OAC is supposed to have a degree in economics, wonder what kind of dance she had to perform to get that degree?
Pretty tony dresser.
Takes too long for a millennial to read (I lost interest before the end). Here’s a fact from Venezuela that’s much shorter:
“Maduro has raised the minimum wage 25 times since he took office in 2013,”
How’s that working?
This is true.
She spent 4 years at Boston University, graduated with a degree in economics, and learned nothing. How did she even pass 100 level courses?
My favorite Reaganism!
LOL. She has said some absurd things, especially considering she has a degree in economics, and theoretically should know better.
Lap.
Again, Occasional Cortex’s constant ridiculous jabbering on social media and to the fake news media shows she is emotionally and mentally unbalanced.
She never shuts the F up, goes on multiple rants and starts multiple arguments every single day. She never takes a breath or a pause. Never. This is not normal behavior.
She’s going through bipolar mania and she probably also is hopped up on drugs.
Could be.
Imagine being her boyfriend. She is said to be living with some guy.
She must’ve been talking about herself!
I think it’s all very calculated.
I think she’s doing anything she can to grab media attention.
Often mistaken; never in doubt.
I hope she keeps attacking the Rat media who dare to fact check the extremely stupid things she says every day. This will not work out well for her.
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