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- Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Friday attacked Trump and Republicans lawmakers late Friday over rising college costs and a stagnant minimum wage.
- The congresswoman told conservatives they “sound like folks who speak of the days when Hershey bars were 5¢ at the general store,” on Twitter.
- Young Americans are struggling to pay for college as costs have exploded over the last two decades, she said.
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Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez late Friday shot back at President Donald Trump and Republican lawmakers, accusing them of being so out of touch with young American workers that they remember when Hershey bars were “5¢ at the general store.”
The congresswoman’s posts were the latest in a back-and-forth with conservatives about how difficult it’s become for young Americans to pay for college while minimum wages remain stagnant.
The price of higher education has exploded in the last two decades, while wages haven’t kept pace, she said.
—Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) December 5, 2020
“Pretty sad how much people have been conditioned to believe that not getting crushed by costs of healthcare, housing, education, and low wages is either ‘radical left politics’ or ‘nice but unrealistic,'” wrote Ocasio-Cortez.
Earlier in the week, some conservatives tweeted that they’d worked nights and weekends to pay their way through school. Some argued that because they’d managed to pay their own way, today’s students should be able to do so, too.
Ocasio-Cortez shot back, saying it's not that students aren't working hard enough, but rather that lawmakers haven't taken the right steps to help them. The federal minimum wage since 2009 has been $7.25 per hour, although many states have higher minimums.
"These Republicans who are defensively rage-tweeting "But you're wrong! I worked my way to pay through college!!" don't realize they sound like folks who speak of the days when Hershey bars were 5¢ at the general store," the congresswoman said on Twitter.
—Kasey Lovett (@lovett_kasey) December 4, 2020
Ocasio-Cortez started the conversation on Thursday, when she said conservative lawmakers didn't know what it was like to scrape by at a blue-collar job, as she did when she was a server and bartender.
She said: "Republicans like to make fun of the fact that I used to be a waitress, but we all know if they ever had to do a double they'd be the ones found crying in the walk-in fridge halfway through their first shift bc someone yelled at them for bringing seltzer when they wanted sparkling."
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