'This is our one big shot' AOC implores Joe Biden to not 'be limited by Republicans' after he reached infrastructure compromise bringing bill down to $1 trillion price tag
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez blasted Joe Biden on Sunday for getting 'limited' by Republicans in infrastructure negotiations
'In those areas where there is agreement, Republicans are more than welcome to join so that we can get this work on infrastructure done,' Ocasio-Cortez told NBC's Meet the Press host Chuck Todd on Sunday.
'But that doesn't mean the president should be limited by Republicans, particularly when we have a House majority, we have 50 Democratic senators and we have the White House,' the progressive New York Democrat continued.
Ocasio-Cortez continued: 'This is our one big shot, not just in terms of family, child care, Medicare, but on climate change.'
President Biden, along with 10 bipartisan lawmakers, announced from the White House Thursday 'we have a deal' on infrastructure.
He later tried to tie the deal to his so-called 'human infrastructure' American Families Plan, but had to backtrack Sunday after Republicans raged and said they wouldn't pass the infrastructure deal if it was reliant on reconciliation.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez lashed out at President Joe Biden on Sunday, claiming he shouldn't be 'limited by Republicans' in infrastructure negotiations and other legislation while Democrats hold a majority
'This is our one big shot, not just in terms of family, child care, Medicare, but on climate change,' the progressive New York congresswoman told NBC News' Chuck Todd (left)
Ocasio-Cortez lashed out at the deal Thursday, claiming the deal was inherently racist because it was made by only white lawmakers and ignored the concerns of minority communities.
'The diversity of this 'bipartisan coalition' pretty perfectly conveys which communities get centered and which get left behind when leaders prioritize bipartisan dealmaking over inclusive lawmaking (which prioritizes delivering the most impact possible for the most people),' the New York progressive congresswoman tweeted Thursday.
She included a picture of the bipartisan group at the White House when they announced the deal. The group included the president, Democratic Senators Kyrsten Sinema, Joe Manchin, Jeanne Shaheen, Mark Warner and Jon Tester and Republican Senators Rob Portman, Susan Collins, Bill Cassidy, Mitt Romney and Lisa Murkowski.
Also on Sunday, the far left congresswoman rebuked centrist Democratic opposition to nixing the filibuster, which has allowed Republicans to block solely partisan legislation.
'Why defend a 60-vote filibuster?' Ocasio-Cortez questioned during her NBC News interview.
'Political systems all across the world pass legislations with majorities and they're fine,' she continued.
Last week, Republicans were able to block Democrats' voting rights bill by filibuster when Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer was unable to earn support from a single GOP senator. He needed 10 Republicans defectors to avoid a filibuster, which would block the For the People Act to the floor to begin debate.
Progressive lawmakers have tried to slip in getting rid of the filibuster in other big legislative packages. But the idea is a nonstarter for the Republican majority in Congress and from centrist Democrats who claim the provision could be used against them in the future.
Specifically, Arizona Senator Kyrsten Sinema and West Virginia's Joe Manchin have spoken out against the idea of nixing the filibuster.
Ocasio-Cortez says she does not believe in this 'defeatist' attitude.
'I mean, it is a, it's essentially an argument of saying, 'Well why do anything at all, in case something in the future may change it,' Ocasio-Cortez of Sinema's op-ed last week arguing against ending the filibuster.
'Political systems all across the country, I mean all across the world, pass legislation with majorities and they're fine,' she argued, adding that 'Democratic legislation, once enacted, is popular.'
'Republicans have tried to gut Social Security. They've tried to reverse the ACA. They've tried to claw back on legislation that has passed by simple majorities in the Senate, and they haven't been able to because Democratic policies are popular, and once they are enacted, they are very politically difficult to undo,' Ocasio-Cortez continued.
She said: 'I do not believe in the defeatism of saying, 'We will lose in the future, and that, this will automatically mean that anything we do now is going to be reversed, so we might as well not do anything now.' Our job is to legislate. Our job is to help people. Our job is to do as much as we can.'
After Biden reached a deal on infrastructure with lawmakers, Ocasio-Cortez suggested that any bipartisan deal in Washington is inherently racist.
Ocasio-Cortez suggested Republicans are ignoring minority communities by claiming any bipartisan deal in Washington is inherently racist. 'The diversity of this 'bipartisan coalition' pretty perfectly conveys which communities get centered and which get left behind,' AOC tweeted along with an image of President Joe Biden with the bipartisan group of lawmakers, who are all white
She said bipartisan packages usually exclude minority communities. 'That's how you get GOP on board,' she insisted
'This is why a bipartisan pkg alone isn't acceptable,' she wrote on Twitter Thursday. 'The exclusion & denial of our communities is what DC bipartisan deals require,' she added. 'That's how you get GOP on board : don't do much/any for the working class & low income,or women, or poc communities, or unions,etc.'
She implored: 'We must do more.'
Ocasio-Cortez pointed out that all members of the bipartisan group who reached the deal are white, and suggested that inherently makes the infrastructure deal racist in nature and exclusionary of minority communities.
'[F]olks can sometimes come across as careless when saying 'well isn't something better than nothing?' For many communities, their not having a seat at the table is a precondition for bipartisan deals to work in the 1st place. & that's not only seen as normal, but valued,' she tweeted.
'Meanwhile, when representatives of excluded communities object to the exclusion &marginalization required to make many bipartisan deals work, they're dismissed as 'unreasonable.' So who/what often benefits from this type of bipartisan dealmaking? Corporations & structural racism,' the congresswoman continued.
She did clarify, however, that not 'any/all bipartisan deals are bad', but urged Americans and lawmakers to 'actually read what's inside them instead of assume bipartisan=good'.
'Isn't something better than nothing; assumes that none of the individuals involved agreed to harmful policies. A huge assumption,' she concluded.
