Ocasio-Cortez: It was easier to get elected to Congress than pay off student loan debt

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) said this week it was “literally easier” for her to be elected to Congress than it has been for her to pay off her student loan debt.

“I will disclose my personal stake in this fight because I have student loans, too,” the freshman Democrat began during an event on Monday in Washington, D.C., where Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) unveiled a bill calling on the elimination of student debt in the country.

“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,” she said.{mosads}

“So, that should tell you everything about the state of our economy and the state of quality of life for working people,” she continued. “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.”

“And I don’t think that that is the bar in which a person should be able to access education, health care and a bevy of other things that should be considered human rights,” the 29-year-old lawmaker added.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on bill to eliminate all student debt: “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.” https://t.co/86zUlcCpQ1 pic.twitter.com/ufJeyjC7jr

— ABC News (@ABC) June 24, 2019

During the event on Monday, Sanders, who is running for president, proposed legislation along with progressive Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) that calls for all of the country’s $1.6 trillion worth of student debt to be eliminated.

If enacted, the measure would call on the federal government to wipe out the student loan debt of nearly 45 million Americans. The bill would also call for universities across the country to admit students into school tuition-free.

Sanders’s plan calls for taxes on Wall Street that his campaign says could raise more than $2 trillion over 10 years to pay for the bill.