Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the New York Democrat who identifies as a socialist, said she was appalled by what she discovered when visiting her ailing “abuela” (grandmother) in Puerto Rico Wednesday.
“Just over a week ago, my abuela fell ill. I went to Puerto Rico to see her- my 1st time in a year+ bc of COVID,”
she tweeted.
“This is her home. Hurricane María relief hasn’t arrived. Trump blocked relief $ for PR. People are being forced to flee ancestral homes, & developers are taking them.”
The congresswoman attached two photographs — one which appears to be of a living room, and the second a bedroom. They each depict damage to the ceiling and buckets on the floor — apparently to catch water from a leaking roof. The bedroom contained a platform-style bed with no mattress.
People wondered why someone who makes $174,000 a year, drives a luxury car, and maintains two apartments couldn’t spread the wealth a bit — you know, like a true socialist.
The Daily Wire’s
Matt Walsh tweeted that it’s “Shameful that you live in luxury while allowing your own grandmother to suffer in these squalid conditions.”
Said Lavern Spicer, a Florida Republican who ran for Congress in 2020, “Honey, you drive a Tesla and have two apartments. If your grandmother is living poor that’s because you don’t help her out. I’m surprised that a socialist wouldn’t redistribute that wealth to their grandma. Sad!”
Conservative political commentator
Michael Knowles replied, ”You're a wealthy and famous politician. You can't spare a couple bucks to spruce up your 'abuela's' home?"
The Libertarian Party of Tennessee
asked on its official Twitter account, “So you agree, the government is incompetent with getting relief $ to the people and would be better done through voluntarily contributions?”
Relief funding for Puerto Rico in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria has admittedly been plagued by starts and stops due in no small measure to mishandling of funds by island officials.
In July 2019
the FBI announced the arrest of two former senior administration officials of Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rosselló on charges of illegally directing federal funds to politically connected contractors.
In total, six people were charged in the 32-count indictment.
At that time, only about $14 billion of the $42 billion Congress had approved for Puerto Rico’s recovery had been released, and some feared that the arrests would cause further setbacks.
Nonetheless, the Trump administration released another nearly $13 billion the following year.
But the timing of Ocasio-Cortez’s discovery makes even less sense.
By stating that this week’s visit was her first in more than a year because of COVID, she implied that she’d visited her grandmother prior to the pandemic.
But Maria ravaged Puerto Rico in September 2017 — nearly four years ago.
Is she now saying that the conditions were worse this week than they were during her previous post-hurricane visits, or is she saying this is her first post-hurricane visit?
As far as that goes, haven’t the two been in touch by phone? No questions like “How are you doing, abuela?” especially given that granny obviously knows that her granddaughter is now a big shot.
If not, then this is the sort of thinking that comes from “it takes a village to raise a child (or care for a grandparent)” socialist philosophy, and sure enough, Ocasio-Cortez described what she did to help the situation: “We immediately got to work reaching out to community advocates and leaders and following the money.”
A better solution would have been to have opened up her own checkbook, or to have said, “You’re coming home with me, Gramma!”
It takes a family to raise a child to become strong and independent — or to care for a grandparent who finds herself on hard times.
Ocasio-Cortez exhibited her illogical, socialist-driven thought process most recently at a Thursday press briefing on violent crime.
"If we want to reduce violent crime, if we want to reduce the number of people in our jails, the answer is to stop building more of them,”
she said.
And by extension, we could reduce the number of seriously ill people if we just stop building hospitals. We can raise the level oral hygiene by having fewer dental clinics. Want to raise literacy? Fewer libraries!
Socialism, don’t you just love it? Scratch a socialist, find a fascist — and an idiot.
Michael Dorstewitz is a retired lawyer and has been a frequent contributor to BizPac Review and Liberty Unyielding. He is also a former U.S. Merchant Marine officer and an enthusiastic Second Amendment supporter, who can often be found honing his skills at the range. Read Dorstewitz's Reports — More Here.