Incoming Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’ recent comments claiming the Pentagon could partially fund a ‘Medicare for All’ system continued to come under fire Tuesday, with the Washington Post describing the fuzzy math as “badly flawed.”
“Let’s put $21 trillion in context. The entire national debt is $21.8 trillion. According to the Congressional Budget Office, total defense spending from 1998 to 2015 was nearly $9 trillion. The CBO estimates $7 trillion in defense spending from 2019 to 2028,” writes the Post.
New #FactChecker —> Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s $21 trillion mistake https://t.co/Yda2vmhVx4
— Glenn Kessler (@GlennKesslerWP) December 4, 2018
“In other words, completely defunding the military for the next decade would yield only one-fifth of $32 trillion. That’s a much better way of illustrating the cost of Medicare-for-All,” adds the Post.
Her initial tweet has since been shared by 25,000 users.
Read the Washington Post’s full rebuttal of Ocasio-Cortez here.
FACT CHECK: NY Times RIPS Cortez’ Claim Pentagon Could Pay $32T 'Medicare for All'
Even the mainstream media piled on incoming Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’ recent comments that Pentagon spending errors could largely fund a ‘Medicare for All’ healthcare system; with the New York Times calling the claim ‘misleading.’
“Representative-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the rising liberal star, cited a figure that refers to nearly two decades of internal financial adjustments, not actual spending,” writes the Times.
“For starters, the combined Pentagon budget from 1998 to 2015 was $9.2 trillion. One study by a libertarian economic think tank found that ‘Medicare for all’ legislation by Senator Bernie Sanders, independent of Vermont, would cost the federal government $32.6 trillion over 10 years,” adds the author.
$21 TRILLION of Pentagon financial transactions “could not be traced, documented, or explained.”
$21T in Pentagon accounting errors. Medicare for All costs ~$32T.
That means 66% of Medicare for All could have been funded already by the Pentagon.
And that’s before our premiums. https://t.co/soT6GSmDSG
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) December 2, 2018
The point, I think, was more about how we care so little about the ‘how do you pay for it’ when we are talking about war and military spending,” said a spokesperson for Ocasio-Cortez.
Read the full story here.
LIBERAL LOGIC: Cortez Claims 66% of ‘Medicare for All’ Could be Funded by ‘Pentagon Errors’
Incoming Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez claimed the Pentagon could finance nearly 70% of her $31T ‘Medicare for All’ proposal over the weekend; saying accounting errors could account for upwards of $21T in new funds.
Cortez made the bold assertion Sunday on social media, writing “21 TRILLION of Pentagon financial transactions ‘could not be traced, documented, or explained.’ $21T in Pentagon accounting errors. Medicare for All costs ~$32T. That means 66% of Medicare for All could have been funded already by the Pentagon. And that’s before our premiums.”
$21 TRILLION of Pentagon financial transactions “could not be traced, documented, or explained.”
$21T in Pentagon accounting errors. Medicare for All costs ~$32T.
That means 66% of Medicare for All could have been funded already by the Pentagon.
And that’s before our premiums. https://t.co/soT6GSmDSG
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) December 2, 2018
Cortez found herself in hot water just days ago after posting another provocative tweet comparing the ‘migrant caravan’ along the US-Mexico border with “Jewish families” fleeing World War II.