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Member Of Congress Says Election Was Easier Than Paying Off Debt

Newly elected New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said getting elected to the House was an easier hurdle to overcome than paying her student loan debt. Ocasio-Cortez, who worked as a bartender and server before running for Congress as a Democrat, has an economics degree from Boston University. She is now supporting a bill sponsored by Sen. Bernie Sanders, a Vermont Democrat, to eliminate student loan debt by taxing financial transactions and stocks.

“I think it’s so funny a year ago I was waiting tables in a restaurant and it was literally easier for me to become the youngest woman in American history elected to Congress than it is pay off my student loan debt,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “So, that should tell you everything about the state of our economy and the state of quality of life for working people. Because in order for me to get a chance to have health care, in order for me to get a chance to pay off my student loans, I had to do something that was nearly impossible.”

Sanders, who is running for president in 2020, says his plan would “make Wall Street pay” Americans’ student loan debt, which collectively amounts to over a trillion dollars. Other Democrats, such as presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren, have proposed eliminating college tuition entirely and making higher education free at public universities.