Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

“ His several-thousand-dollar-a-month Bronx mortgage is stressful enough. The anti-immigrant sentiment of this administration is stressful enough. And the truth of this shutdown is that it's actually not about a wall, it is not about the border, and it is certainly not about the well-being of everyday Americans. The truth is, this shut down is about the erosion of American democracy and the subversion of our most basic governmental norms. It is not normal to hold 800,000 workers' paychecks hostage. It is not normal to shut down the government we we don't get what we want. ”

“ And so the thing that's so important is addressing that pressure, because the reason that there is so much pressure and energy around schools reopening is because of the economic impossibility of this situation for working parents. And so if we can address just the impossible situation that working parents are in when it comes to childcare and doing your job, then we can really reduce the pressure on reopening schools according to a timeline of convenience as opposed to a timeline of public health. ”

“ Whereas, climate change constitutes a direct threat to the national security of the United States—
(1) by impacting the economic, environmental, and social stability of countries and communities around the world, and
(2) by acting as a threat multiplier,
Whereas the Federal Government-led mobilizations during World War II and the New Deal created the greatest middle class that the United States has ever seen, but many members of frontline and vulnerable communities were excluded from many of the economic and societal benefits of those mobilizations ”

“ It does not matter how much I disagree, or how much it incenses me, or how much I feel people are dehumanising others, I will not do that myself. I will not allow people to change and create hatred in our hearts. And so what I believe is that having a daughter does not make a man decent. ”

“ Shout out to our small businesses in the community, let's give you a rundown update of our small businesses in our community and what's going on for you. A lot of stuff has happened, these reopening really apply to you, the small businesses.
So just three quick things we could talk about. So businesses can check online to see what phase they're in, it's the New York Forward plan is what lets you know what industries can reopen. But importantly, all businesses that we just talked about that are reopening need to have a business safety plan up and pasted in their place of business. ”

“ Lastly, what I want to express to Mister Yoho is gratitude. I want to thank him for showing the world that you can be a powerful man and accost women. You can have daughters and accost women without remorse. You can be married and accost women. You can take photos, and project an image to the world of being a family man, and accost women without remorse, and with a sense of impunity. It happens every day in this country. It happened here on the steps of our nation's Capitol. ”

“ It is not normal for public servants to run away and hide from the public that they serve. And it is certainly not normal to starve the people we serve for a proposal that is wildly unpopular among the American people. ”

“ I work in Manhattan and I live in Woodside, and my question is more revolving what the expectation and the City's plan, or what plans are in place, to help with social distancing once we're in let's say Phase 4, and we are back on the subway system.
As a subway rider who spends an hour and a half every day traveling to and from the city that is my main concern, and I also have a high risk mother that I take care of at home. What do you see as a vision? ”

“ Whereas, because the United States has historically been responsible for a disproportionate amount of greenhouse gas emissions, having emitted 20 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions through 2014, and has a high technological capacity, the United States must take a leading role in reducing emissions through economic transformation ”

“ Because we know that the economy - in the end - is people's lives, that's their livelihood, that's how they feed themselves, and that's how they pursue things that are important to them. So we can't really dogmatically say 'nothing, you can't do anything' because you have to realize that this virus is with us until we have a vaccine, so we've gotta find a way to make ourselves able to deal with this risk. ”

“ Having a wife does not make a decent man. Treating people with dignity and respect makes a decent man. And when a decent man messes up — as we all are bound to do — he tries his best and does apologise. ”

“ And we also need to make sure that that if your risk tolerance is lower because you - not even from a personality perspective but if your risk tolerance is lower because you are caring for a parent, or you yourself may be immunocompromised, or you are living with someone who may be immunocompromised, that we make sure that mask wearing is really really high and that we make sure that we're sanitizing everything everything everything that you take on the subway with you. As he said, surface transmission is definitely lower than being within six feet of another person, but it still is a factor. ”

“ I have tossed men out of bars that have used language like Mister Yoho's, and I have encountered this type of harassment riding the subway in New York City. This is not new, and that is the problem.
Mister Yoho was not alone. He was walking shoulder to shoulder with Representative Roger Williams. And that's when we start to see that this issue is not about one incident. It is cultural. It is a culture of lack of impunity, of accepting of violence and violent language against women. An entire structure of power that supports that. ”

“ And it's hard, and it's not gonna be all very right-or-wrong answer, it's gonna be a lot of zones of grey here, and I think that's something that we haven't had to deal with as Americans for a long long time when it comes to an infectious disease risk. I think everybody has to realize no activities can be without this virus, but we can go forward with this if we actually are mindful and listen to the guidance that's out there, and try our best to avoid exposing ourselves, or becoming a transmission belt of this virus to somebody that might be more vulnerable. ”

“ Federal workers' jobs are stressful enough. The rise in New York City's cost of living is stressful enough. The fact that Mr. Obeid's family cannot be reunified due to fears over the Muslim ban is stressful enough. ”

“ There is the mortality that is the natural mortality of the disease and the severity of the disease, but then there's also the mortality and severity that are due to resource issues, and that's really what we're talking about when we hit this moment of full economic shutdown. ”

“ Even when - my role in the business is the marketing, to make the business grow, right now my mind is just busy operating the business and trying to keep the ship floating. You know it is very, very hard, and I'm very worried about all that is going on because I don't know even if we are in Phase 1, Phase 2, Phase 3, any of the different phases makes a difference for me in my personal case. ”

“ But it may very well be doable, if you can realistically create social distancing, even if it's like a takeout situation, or if you're able to spray those circles in the grass so people can remain socially distanced like they're doing in San Francisco and other places across the country, in the City. And so my recommendation would be there are a lot of areas just like we're seeing with green markets in Jackson Heights and Parkchester across the district where outdoor events have been doable, and with enough mask-wearing they are not leading to transmission or any spikes in transmission. ”

“ We have amazing guests who are coming on into this conversation to talk about the community impact, the health impact, and of course we have you - the audience - always always on, available to ask questions and we invite you to call in and join us.
So just to get this conversation started and rolling, in April, just a few months ago, New York State developed a plan to reopen non-essential businesses. This reopening plan is called "New York Forward" and it divides the state, New York state, into ten regions. All across in New York City itself, the five boroughs, it's one region. ”

“ I happen to work in a very large school and a lot of teachers are concerned. How can the Congresswoman supply, or help supply, the schools with the resources they need to ensure that they're open safely?
ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ: Well, thank you so so much for your question, it's a really important one. And you know so many of us parents, community members, people who have children in their lives, it's a really complicated time for all of us because we're all dealing with this question of are schools reopening? If they are, how are they reopening, how are we making sure that everybody's safe? ”

“ It can actually be more helpful for that small business, if you can swing it, if it's something that's possible in your budget, to buy a gift card almost for the month and say you know what I'm going to spend $100 at this place in the next month or two. And if you just give them that $100 up front in terms of a gift card, and then use your gift card when you buy food, it gives that person that cash flow upfront and so that small business has more liquidity. ”

“ If you cannot provide masks, if you cannot provide PPE in order to facilitate a school operating, then we have no business reopening schools, because we shouldn't be putting our school staff and teachers' lives in the hands of a charity cause because that's inappropriate and it's wrong. ”

“ We have to make sure that we're doing everything that we can to avoid service shutdowns, which drive people into other lines, which overcrowd them. And we know especially during summertime and early fall, you know that can happen quite a lot. And we also need to make sure that while people are on these trains, as you get these trains that get more people on them, that we are maintaining compliance with mask-wearing as much as possible because all it takes to get someone sick is just one person who's carrying COVID to not wear a mask - even if that person doesn't know that they're carrying it. ”

“ And it's probably a little bit of a red zone, a little flagged community in the city as well, and so what happens is that we can't fund kids and we cannot fund families that we do not know are there. If you send your child to a school where there's 25, 30 kids in the classroom, we can't get more teachers to that school if your children don't essentially exist in the eyes of the census. That's why it's so important that we fill out the census. ”

“ They have stark seasonality where they peak in the fall and the winter and the spring, and then they kind of go away in the summer. And that's why we believe this coronavirus will behave like that, so that means when we get into the cold months, when the flu season starts, we have to be expecting an acceleration of transmission of this virus. And that's going to be challenging, because they're going to be competing for the same resources as influenza patients. They're going to be competing for beds and ICUs and personal protective equipment in hospitals and it could be very, very challenging. ”