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1. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-cortez (d-ny)
2. Rep Alexandria Ocasio Cortez Mail
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4. Rep Alexandria Ocasio Cortez Website
5. Socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-cortez (d-ny)
6. Alexandria Ocasio-cortez Husband

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: Capitol rioter charged with threatening to 'assassinate' New York congresswoman By Marshall Cohen, CNN 6 days ago CDC issues. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) arrives for a hearing before the House Oversight and Reform Committee on August 24, 2020 Tom Williams/Getty Images.

President Donald Trump skipped Joe Biden’s inauguration, but he wasn’t the only one. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) decided to attend a labor union demonstration in South Bronx instead, but her real reason is probably grounded in the latter part of why she was absent. She’s afraid. Yes, you read that right. Ocasio-Cortez is afraid of her Republican colleagues after the January 6 riot that occurred on Capitol Hill (via Fox News):

1. Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has lived life under the GOP's microscope since she launched her first campaign. Now, as the NY-14 representative celebrates her landslide Democratic primary.
2. Alexandria-Ocasio-Cortez is interviewed on 'This Week.' More From ABC News UP NEXT. NOW PLAYING: Politics 1-on-1 with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., first told CNN’s Chris Cuomo that she had foregone her invitation to President Biden’s inauguration to support a union strike in the South Bronx.

'I’m thrilled for President Biden and Vice President Harris,' she said, 'I think the festivities were phenomenal.'

But when pressed, the progressive rabble-rouser admitted that she’d also sat out the swearing-in due to security concerns, adding that she didn’t feel safe around her colleagues at the moment.

[…]

'I think we also had very real security concerns,' Ocasio-Cortez admitted. 'We still don’t yet feel safe around other members of Congress.'

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-cortez (d-ny)

She added that a 'very considerable amount' of members of Congress do not feel safe around their colleagues, over two weeks since rioters breached the Capitol.

Okay, take a chill pill, lady. So much for the feelings of unity and no viewing each other as enemies. It’s why we all roll our eyes when Biden makes that declaration. Yet, we shouldn’t expect anything less from this New York lefty. She needs to make a fuss, cause a commotion, and offer a statement as if we forgot about her or something. AOC and the squad aren’t going anywhere. We get it. Frankly, at this point, maybe there should be one member of Congress who should be afraid of her—and it’s no Republican. It’s Sen. Chuck Schumer who is up for re-election in 2022. Ocasio-Cortez could primary him. She’s known for shooting inside the ship, she had the fundraising network to fill a war chest, and she has the name recognition. It could get interesting. But back to the inauguration, can we all agree that her remarks are grounded in nothing but pure idiocy, which I know makes up a lot of her remarks in general.

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Rep Alexandria Ocasio Cortez Mail

Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has lived life under the GOP's microscope since the moment she launched her first campaign. Now, as the NY-14 representative celebrates her landslide Democratic primary victory, AOC's potential second term has renewed interest in her personal and financial history. Yet, while the self-proclaimed 'Democratic Socialist' has battled countless rumors about her education, AOC's bank account looked much like those of her constituents' until she ran for office.

With an annual salary of approximately $174,000, AOC is worth an estimated $100,000 (per Celebrity Net Worth). However, as Financial Samurai notes, AOC's actual net worth is more likely $0 right now, because her student loan debt outweighs her current savings and she doesn't own any property or stocks. Before AOC landed her healthy congressional paycheck, she earned an estimated $26,600, so she has intimate knowledge of what it's like to be financially insecure.

'When I was waitressing, I used to jerk awake in the middle of sleep worried that I may have forgotten if a bill cleared, or if I had enough [money] to pay a [doctor] in cash,' AOC tweeted in May 2019. 'Was that [because] I was 'irresponsible?' No. It's [because] I wasn't being paid a living wage as cost of living skyrocketed.' As part of her 'income transition,' AOC noted new perks, such as health insurance, afforded her many new freedoms that every American citizen deserves. With this in mind, however, the freshman Democrat made it her mission to ensure her staff never struggles to survive.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez pays entry-level staff members more than D.C.'s typical 'living wage'

For Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, living paycheck to paycheck used to be the norm. She understands what it's like to struggle when the rent comes due. Thus, once she officially took her place in the U.S. House of Representatives, AOC shocked Capitol Hill with her promise to pay her staff no less than $52,000/year in an effort to promote and normalize the living wage. 'Leadership starts with our choices,' she tweeted in February 2019. 'It's likely one of the highest entry-level salaries on the Hill. We pinch pennies elsewhere, but it's worth every dime to pay a living wage.'

AOC added that, while congressional members are allotted funds for disbursement, GOP leaders haven't increases said budgets in years, which means many of the people who help run the country must settle for an entry-level salary around $30,000/year — well below the estimated $36,940.80 needed to sustain a single adult who lives in Washington, D.C., according to Massachusetts Institute of Technology's living wage calculator (via Yahoo! Finance).

With an estimated $1 million Members Representational Allowance left to her discretion, AOC added that interns will earn $15/hour and senior staff salaries would be capped at $80,000/year. 'It is unjust for Congress to budget a living wage for ourselves, yet rely on unpaid interns [and] underpaid overworked staff just [because] Republicans want to make a statement about 'fiscal responsibility,' she tweeted in December 2018. Now that's leadership!

Alexandria Ocasio Cortez D Ny

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez 'had to do something that was nearly impossible' to pay off her student loan debt

As someone who owed tens of thousands of dollars in student loans, NY-14's Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has become a champion for debt forgiveness. In support for the College for All Act, AOC revealed that 'it was literally easier for me to become the youngest woman in American history elected to Congress than it is to pay off my student loan debt.'

AOC told CNBC reporters, 'In order for me to get a chance to have healthcare, in order for me to get a chance to pay off my student loans, I had to do something that was nearly impossible. And I don't think that that is the bar through which a person should be able to access education, healthcare and a bevy of other things that should be considered human rights.'

She added that student debt could grind the economy to a halt because those of the 30-year-old's generation cannot purchase homes because they're buried under debt. 'What we tell 17-year-olds all the time is that you are not old enough or responsible enough to drink, you are not old enough or responsible enough to vote, you are not old enough or responsible enough to serve in our military, but you are old enough and responsible enough to take on a quarter million dollars worth of debt,' AOC explained. It's time to flip the script!

Rep Alexandria Ocasio Cortez Website

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has been criticized for her spending habits

Despite Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's efforts to pay her staff a livable salary, and to advocate for a living wage for all Americans, the self-proclaimed Democratic socialist has not remained free from criticism from conservatives about her own spending habits.

Socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-cortez (d-ny)

In 2019, Republican congressmen went into a frenzy over a Washington Times report that the NY-14 representative spent $300 at the hair salon. The article stated that AOC visited an up-scale salon in Washington, D.C. and spent a hefty amount on highlights and tip. Conservative and President of Americans for Limited Government Richard Manning was quoted, calling out AOC for preaching 'socialism while living the life of the privileged' (via Allure).

Alexandria Ocasio-cortez Husband

While practically every woman who has ever gotten a comparable cut and color job was able to confirm that AOC's hairstyle costs a pretty penny, the congresswoman responded via Twitter, writing, '40 million Americans live in poverty under today's extreme inequality, yet the right-wing want you to blame Democratic socialism for their own moral failures. Our policies, like Medicare for All, advance prosperity for working people. They're just mad we look good doing it.'