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POLITICS ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ AOC responds to Trump's Congressional Address ... March 4th 2025 PLAY YOUTUBE VIDEO Original article: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOVanffjOC0 Peter Burgess COMMENTARY This is not an exciting presentation ... it is rather long and boring ... but it is pretty important, getting down to rather basic stuff that needs to be talked about! Peter Burgess
AOC responds to Trump's Congressional Address \| Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Mar 6, 2025 269K subscribers No description has been added to this video. Transcript 0:01 hey everyone how's it [Music] going we've got some post State of the Union chat um hey everybody how's it going hope you're doing well hey everyone yeah so um State of the Union just happened if you didn't watch it it God bless you protect your [Laughter] peace someone said glad you stayed away me [Laughter] too um yeah I I didn't go to all that I knew that was going to be a mess um and personally you know I watched it from 1:01 home I paid attention to what the president was saying um I watched it so you didn't have to um but uh so if you didn't you know that's okay uh I watched the whole thing um but I watched it from home everybody makes different decisions um I just felt like I couldn't um I didn't feel like I could legitimize his presence um that being said you know I know different people had different takes on it uh in terms of the House of Representatives um you know I'll I'll give you an alternative perspective um in terms of the House of Representatives you know some people 2:04 feel and it is true that the State of the Union occurs in the House of Representatives known as the people's house um and technically in terms of the proceedings of the State of the Union an interesting thing about the house is that it is different from almost every other uh chamber in that only house members are typically allowed in the House of Representatives so um anybody else that is brought into the house that walks into the house has to be invited and um and so Trump actually has to be formally invited to the house floor in order to be allowed into the house floor same thing with all those senators and the cabinet members Etc so so you know I think other people had a certain logic which is that this is the people's house 3:06 and Trump showing up uh should not kind of force the duly elected representatives of that chamber especially those who disagree with him out so you know that was a that's some of the perspective there anyways I watched from home um and if you if you did if you didn't honestly and I this is like I listen to Trump I do because he has won um he has won two presidential elections now the first one was not by popular vote and the second vote he has not won more than 50% of the of the of the US electorate but he has won these elections nevertheless so I listen to him I I listen to what he says 4:05 as an observer and I have to tell you I mean I feel like even if you're like a big Trump fan this speech was not his best um he rambled a lot he was reading a lot of lists uh he was reading a lot of wrong information on lists and um you know to be honest it to me it was giving word minimum for a school essay and you just kind of start typing things so that you get to the word minimum that's what it was giving except for the fact that this was the longest State of the Union speech in American almost this I think it was the longest or the second longest speech or 5:01 a joint address SL dat of the Union speech in history I think it was like him and like a Bill Clinton speech I think they were saying on television shortly after and so he talked a lot but he didn't say much and I want to tell you why that is like why get up there and even if you disagree with it why why get up there and not give the most compelling story that you can give why get up there and just like read number after number after number in these cuts which are not real by the way why rattle off and make all these claims that like about like you found all these 140 year olds who are taking checks from Social Security which is not real by the way why do that and I'm going to tell you why because just like I said in our last live we can we have to remain focused because our focus 6:05 is the same thing as their focus they keep talking about all this waste which by the way like almost all these numbers that Doge has been putting out ends up being fake they say like they'll come up with some initial number and Doge themselves has to revise it down and so they get the headlines saying like oh we got so much but um but then they all end up revising it down and so why are they doing this like I said before it's all about Medicaid it's all about what they're not saying don't you find it interesting that Donald Trump if you listen to that speech Donald Trump said a lot of things he said a lot of random things about studies and and waste and all this other 7:03 stuff he did not talk about Medicaid not once and as a certain right-wing operative likes to say mag's on Medicaid and Maga Trump is coming for your Medicaid Maga Republicans are coming for your Medicaid and the reason they are rattling off all of these things because listen where there is waste we should address it where there is corruption we should address it where there's Fraud and Abuse we should address it but don't you think that if you found a bunch of money in the couch cushions that you would put that to expanding Medicaid improving schools 8:00 fixing our roads right but that's not what they're planning on doing the reason they're shaking all these couch cushions and the reason that they are rattling off all these numbers is because all those numbers they are trying to add up into the one of the most massive tax cuts for billionaires and the 1% probably in modern American history and do not forget that don't forget that it's not not just about what Trump is saying it's about the big obvious things that he is ignoring y'all okay Medicaid don't you find it interesting that he did not mention Medicaid once once the largest source of health insurance the large one of the largest insurers in the United States that impacts most Americans and by the way 9:03 30% of Medicaid money goes to Medicare recipients too so he's doing that for a reason because he's scared if he was confident about his attacks on Medicaid he would have said something wouldn't he he's confident about his attacks on immigrants he's confident about his attacks on federal workers he's confident about all those things why won't he own up and Republicans own up to their attacks on Medicaid and if you are a Donald Trump supporter and you believe him when he says we're not going to touch Medicaid why wouldn't he say that in his speech I mean it's one of the most vulnerable point points that Republicans have right now is is this attack on 10:05 Medicaid they know it's sinking them in fact the nrcc this is an organization that's like kind of in charge of electing Republicans across the country they came in this week and they told every Republican in the House of Representatives to stop doing Town Halls to stop doing Town Halls why why because they're getting too much heat over Medicaid and personally I think they are trying to bully Republicans to get in line to try to line up to vote to gut Medicaid and so they want to extract Republicans out of their communities out of their districts so they don't feel as connected so they isolate them so they can be more easily manipulated and bullied into cutting Medicaid 11:00 and if that if Donald Trump were so proud about it he would own it and if it wasn't true you could if this is a massive political vulnerability he could end he could have ended tonight a lot of the speculation in and a lot of the vulnerability that Republicans were experiencing right now if he went up on that Podium and said we're not going to touch Medicaid but he didn't say that did he he didn't say that mark my words they're coming after it and all of that rattling off on Social Security and trying to frame Social Security as largely wasteful this idea that there's like checks going out tons of Social Security checks going out to dead people no no no social security monitors who passes away and processes who passes 12:04 away that doesn't mean they're cutting a check to people who pass away and they are setting all of this up they are trying to trick you they're trying to trick your your grandparents they're trying to trick young people into thinking that it's all wasteful so that they can get away with cutting it to Pieces it's the same thing with Medicaid my Johnson is going on television talking about how people who are on Medicaid are just all able-bodied 29-year-old young men who are playing video games Medicaid let me tell you all Republicans have attacked Medicaid so often for decades that any little sliver of fat that you can possibly gut from it has largely all 13:03 been trimmed away this is not the first time that Republicans have gone up and frankly anybody has gone up to talk about efficiency and so understand and I'm tell I'm talking directly to Republicans right now because I know some of y'all love to be on my feeds so welcome and I'm happy that you're here to all the Republicans who are on Medicare who are on Medicaid who maybe you're on children's health insurance and by the way a lot of states name these Insurance programs different things like um uh you know New York has a different children's health insurance program uh and so on and so forth so if you have like a little state Healthcare 14:00 program it it's probably public funded and or it might have some sort of public connection to it and I want you to ask your representative if they're going to touch any Medicaid dollars at all and if they try to tell you oh yeah there's a ton of waste ask them how much how much waste like ask for the receipt ask for the receipt if they want to say there's race waste ask for the receipt because what they are trying to cut from Medicaid I'm going to tell you is somewhere to the tune of 88 billion dollar from Medicaid okay $880 billion and I sit on the committee that Medicaid goes through and the math ain't math there's even when you talk to 15:04 Republicans their Wildest Dream fantasy of the amount of so-called waste that they have identified if you believe absolutely everything which like they include long-term care as waste like they include actual certain kinds of Health Care as wasteful in their wildest fantasies their number is still $50 billion so where where's the other $830 billion coming from it's coming from Grandma it's coming from your prescriptions it's coming from your care it's coming from your your insulin it's coming from your kids copay they are setting up to rob you to rob you and that is the moral of the story of this state of the union tonight he was yammering and he was blabbering 16:03 and he was reading off listicles like this was some like this was the longest BuzzFeed right-wing compilation of all time it was boring it was yes it was unsettling very dangerous in terms of um how he is tearing apart us alliances tearing tearing apart uh you know at our allies attacking our our allies um it's not to undermine the seriousness of what he is doing but it is to really communicate that he was trying to dance around their number one priority which is to Rob and gut Medicaid medic care and all of our public systems Social Security Etc in order to pay for tax cuts for 17:08 billionaires billionaires and let me tell you something as far as taxes go he only actually talked about about uh what was it no tax on tips no tax on Social Security benefits and no tax on overtime that is by the I can talk about those specific things but let me tell you something those tax cuts are a little little little tiny line in terms of the entire tax bill it is like 90% well maybe not 90 it is like but it is overwhelmingly tax cuts for billionaires corporations it's the writeoffs on the Yachts it's the write offs on the private jets it's the rich getting richer this bill is the rich getting 18:03 richer and then they put as little lipstick on a pig these little crumbs of no tax on tips no tax on Social Security benefits and no tax on over time let's talk about a couple of these things um in terms of no tax on tips I obviously you all know I was a waitress for many years I was a bar tender on many years someone said your sweater guys I made it thank you it's all I my hair's covering all the holes up here so but in terms of no tax on tips listen I was a waitress I was a bartender I get it um and if you live off of tips I I get it the one thing that I want people to think about is even as a waitress if any of you all else have gotten gone like 19:05 completely mad with every single job being a tipped job with an iPad screen now like especially during covid I mean it's even to the point where the freaking where the freaking self checkouts at the airport get tip screens if you are tired of that I do think it's important for us to recognize the danger of every job becoming a TI job and all of us then now having to pay each other's wages not just in waitressing not just in bartending I'm talking about everything everything and I think it's just a precipice that we all need to think about because it's 20:06 not there is a very careful and slippery slope here that we just need to pause and consider um because then it we can very easily enter a world where no one is paid where like no one's employer is like actually paying their wages and we're all just tipping each other and essentially Gund meing the entire economy and that is the one area where I want us to be thoughtful about okay thoughtful about about and because historically tipped we think of tipped jobs as waitresses bartenders Hospitality but we all have also been experiencing the typification of a lot more jobs outside of that 21:04 and um if you don't want every single person that you interact with starting to turn an iPad screen around we need to take this very carefully um because employers need to pay their employees a living wage employers need to pay their employees a living godamn wage and this idea that we are going to transfer and disincentivize and prevent or give people an outing massive corporations an out from paying a living wage to making everyone 22:02 and incentivizing everyone into becoming a tipped worker I will be the first to tell you as a waitress as a bartender in New York City the volatility of being a tipped worker is a big deal now we choose it we have that job you know that's that's a separate issue but if it gets to a point where no one can get a stable job because everything's become typified because we've changed and altered the tax code to reward employers for not paying a living wage and for paying sub minimum wages sub minimum tip wages I want us to really think about that really think about that number one number two no taxes on Social Security benefits another one honest 23:01 face listen we can talk about that but I want to tell you about how um Social Security is funded because we hear all the time right like especially if you're a millennial I don't know if gen Z when y'all were in high school tell me in the comments um but when I was in high school we would get these little like sometimes like right-wing videos that got wheeled into our classrooms that were like I mean it happened to me where it was like oh Social Security is going to um uh going to run out of money you guys aren't going to get Social Security just so you know Social Security is running out of money it's running out of money they have been priming us to give up on the social security system for a long time but let me tell you something why that is not the case Okay Social Security does have there are Financial issues with Social Security but let me tell you why because we all get tax to 24:05 pay we all pay into Social Security right like if you have a job and you pull up your pay stub you can look at your pay stub how much money you pay um in Social Security and it's a lot of money at the end of the year like it's a lot of money for us for a normal person if you're making 20 30 if you're making 30 40 50 $60,000 a year you look at the end of the year how much money you've paid into Social Security it's a lot of money um but that money the amount of money that you pay into Social Security stops at $250,000 at if your income is $250,000 you have a cap you don't really pay into it proportionately as much all you need to do is lift that maximum income cap of $250,000 um on Social Security and we're 25:05 good social security has does not you eliminate overnight any sort of solvency issue that the right wing and Republicans want to tell you that social security has so let's revisit why Trump's proposal on not taxing Social Security benefits is a problem now if we want to like the idea on his face I think is something that could potentially be negotiable right um because on its face it's not the it's not like on its face not whatever but the way that they have structured the way that Donald Trump and the Republican Party have structured the the no tax on Social Security benefits their proposal is the following current currently Social Security the taxes on Social Security benefits actually go 26:04 around the taxes on Social Security benefits go around to help fund Social Security it goes back into the Social Security fund now when they take away the taxes on Social Security benefits what Trump is proposing that they do is you take away the tax and then you take away the Social Security funding so the way that the little wrapper that they've put on it is no tax on social security but the fine print is that they're trying to make Social Security run out of money faster they're trying to bankrupt Social Security by selling it as a no tax on Social Security benefits now if we wanted to approach that we would lift the cap on the lift the $250,000 income cap 27:00 on social security so that we can fully fund Social Security not have to worry about a solvency issue at all and then we can talk about the tax on benefits and see what possibilities there are there so scam scam and then tax on and then no tax on overtime okay I hear that also just so you know there are some people and some professions on overtime that also make a lot of money and so is there going to be any income cap on that because I will tell you Republicans want to means test Medicaid left right up and down you all know if anybody here has ever had any experience with Medicaid they they like they basically 28:04 floss everything about your life for you to be able to get the tiniest amount of help on your health care so if we're going to give a huge amount of money for no tax on overtime are they going to plan on do doing the same thing or is there going to be any sort of income cap on it or can you make an unlimited amount of of income and still get the tax benefits what if you make a quar million dollars a year do you still think they PE that that those folks shouldn't pay taxes shouldn't contribute what about people who make most of their you know it's I it's not again it's not to say that these things are flat out up or down it's to say those are the only three proposals that really have any relevance to working people and I'm just saying think about it a little bit more 29:03 just think about it like just think about it just a little bit under the surface and even then those three things no tax on tips no tax on social security no benefits and no tax on overtime represent this much of a tax package that is this big and this much of it is um give money to Elon Musk give money to Jeff Bezos give money to Mark Zuckerberg give money to the biggest corporations in America and this much of that tax package has anything to do with you and even this part is still kind of scamming you a little bit so that's in terms of the substance of it and then by the way all of this the money for all of this is to be is taking out of Medicaid we're going to take all of this out of Medicaid and then we're going to move it over here give this much to to billionaires and then give this much in dubious things maybe for 30:03 you because it sounds good on a Podium but when you actually look when you actually open the hood it's kind of crazy so that's that um and I'm going to see if I can take a so I know people are like crying but listen I just want to break that down for you um but I don't want to just leave you with that okay um I want to uh I'm I'm going to dive into some of your questions here um folks are saying AOC we're listening we hear you tell us what to do so um I think there's a couple of things there are some folks that are around here that are interested in electoral actions some people here who are not interested in electoral actions I'm going to start electorally these Republicans I'm telling you 31:04 all they are getting scared Trump not mentioning Medicaid at the State of the Union is the game he doesn't talk about what he fears and he knows it's dyn Dynamite the Republic House Republicans know that it's dynamite for them and um that's why they're talking about not hosting Town Halls we need to be creatively organizing in Republican districts and I don't want to hear K Republicans don't listen they are afraid of this I'm telling you if they weren't afraid of it 32:00 they would continue to be hosting their Town Halls if they weren't afraid of it Trump would have said something they're afraid of it and the reason they're not the reason they're trying not to host the town halls and the reason that Trump is not even using the word Medicaid at the State of the Union speech is precisely because they don't want people talking about it and they don't want people making noise about it so what we need to do is that if you're you are near a republican District which a lot of people are if you are near a republican district and not even if you're near a republican District if you are in a republican district and your Republican is not hosting a town hall it's time to do community Town Halls it's time to do community teachings it's time to to do community Town Halls it is time um to to start 33:05 advertising their absence okay advertise their absence in New York New York City has a representative New York City has a Republican representative Nicole malot takz Brooklyn and Staten Island it is time if she is following the party line and not doing a town hall guess what it's time for you to do a town hall it's time for us to start doing community Town Halls Mike Lawler out in Westchester County we you've got Republicans all across the country if the Jeff Van Drew in New Jersey we've got I I don't want yall to say this is an r+ 20 seat guys if Democrats have lost D 34:03 plus you know a lot seats over the years Republicans can lose R plus 10 seats just straight up like if if Democrats can step on a rake Republicans can step on a rake and I am telling you they are stepping on one of the biggest rakes in modern American history we are seeing social SEC they are they are messing with Social Security y'all they're me I need you to understand how much of a political noo that has been for both parties for a very long time for a reason because your stuff will collapse Republicans have wanted to go after social security for a long time they haven't because if they did they would 35:04 lose in big numbers in big numbers magas on Medicaid and you're on Medicaid and I've had family on Medicaid This is the part when people want to talk about transcending party when people want to talk about transcending party now's the moment to to transcend party if you are a fan of Donald Trump and you like to punish yourself by watching my live streams welcome I'm still fighting for your health care anyway if you are Maga and you're on Social Security congratulations welcome I'm fighting for your benefits too because I actually believe that people should age with dignity in this country I believe believe that people should have access 36:00 to health care they want to talk about work requirements they want to say oh all these people with Benefits Medicaid especially I want to take all your preconceptions just like about any other program to the side for a second Medicaid specifically they're want to talk about adding more work require requirements to Medicaid the amount of people who who like fall under this per like percentage wise it is it is almost no one it is almost no one what does happen when you implement paperwork requirements sorry guys I didn't weave in my ends here if you're a nit I need to do that next but I was really excited about finishing this order so I put it on um if what was I saying so if you are what was I talking about I was talking about social security guys help me out in the chat um oh yeah work requirements the amount of people that like are 37:03 actually you know I if you are for example 29 and you're on Medicaid um and you are not working you are most likely disabled you are most you most likely have a major major disability like these idea when they talk about like you know if you do not have a job and you do not have a job for a long period of time and like the the percentage of people on that on Medicaid it's like I I don't quote me on it but I think it's like three or 4% very very very small and those are people who are often looking for work and um the vast majority of people are Medicaid 38:03 lowincome um because we know what Private health insurance is like right uh lowincome uh disabled major major major disabilities that would really prevent people from having like full-time work um or or you know any other kind of extenuating circumstance Medicaid has been means tested to death to death um so they're coming after it they're coming after it and like I this is as someone who believes that Health Care is a human right I believe that I personally believe in a Single Payer Health Care System um but you know if you want to compromise and go with a public option 39:02 you know at the end of the day like the worst sin that can hen in my view in my view the worst sin that can happen is that you accidentally gave someone Healthcare you accidentally let someone see a doctor and that is like a crime because why and before people say we don't have the money for it we don't have the we don't quote unquote have the money for better a better and improved social safety net because we let like Elon Musk gut Medicaid and gut Social Security in order for him 40:02 to pay for a TA his own tax cuts and be his own billion dollars in private Federal contracts this guy takes billions and billions of your tax dollars of your public funds of and it's not just Elon all these guys a lot of a lot of these Tech guys that were uh standing behind Trump at the inauguration a lot of tech talks about themselves as Tech but they're really just defense contractors they're the new Boeing they're the new Lockheed Martin um they're defense contractors and they are robbing us of the tiny slivers of what we have left in our in our Collective public social safety net in order to get billion doll defense contracts cuz here's the thing you want to hear another interesting fact you 41:06 could fire every single federal worker and it would still be on something only like 4% of the federal budget where's all the rest of it going if you actually wanted to go after waste Fraud and Abuse you would go after defense contractors you would go after a lot of other contractors um but the problem is those are the guys who are making the money off of cuts to Medicaid Medicare and Social Security and they fund propaganda for it and they and they buy platforms like Twitter and yeah meta and all these other things and they influence what you see so that you don't see what they do okay so understand the stakes here so what do 42:06 we do we cannot give up on winning the hearts and minds of our fellow Americans okay yes the problem the power problem is up here but the actual work I'm so serious the actual work that we have to do is on a person toperson basis I'm going to take Westchester County as an example Westchester County I went to public school in Westchester County um that County big parts of Westchester are currently represented by Republican those are like 43:03 neighbors those are people that you know that I know just work on them they like and it's not I'm not saying you have to fight with people I am saying that the work of persuasion is actually the work of community and you're not going to persuade anybody you are not going to debate anybody into your side into convincing you of your side you are going to embrace people and connect people and create Community with people to win them over this is a work because I've got to tell you because a lot of people say like where's the Democratic party this is failure of Democratic 44:00 party and listen like you know I it's it's no secret that I have had my own like you know I came in primarying a Democrat okay like I got into office because I ran against a Democrat and I ran against a member of Democratic Leadership and and he had millions and millions of dollars and I was just a waitress and we won and so like when I and and when I won my initial reception from the Democratic party was extremely hosel and um I I was primaried at the first chance that they got very very well funded it was like a $3 million primary challenge against me by my own party like trust 45:00 me when I say that I get it um and when I am in conversations in these rooms one of the things that I also learn and also know is that a lot of these people like yes and it's not to dismiss serious problems with big money it's not to dismiss the structural corruption that exists in our political system but also a lot of people do represent districts that don't see things the same way who have voters that don't see I have traveled the country [Music] and you would just be really surpr I mean guys like Donald Trump won the 46:06 election Republicans won the Senate and Republicans won the house and some of that was a rejection of Democrats and some of it was an Embrace of Republicans and we can do things I think to shape and address the rejection of the democratic party which in many ways depending on the thing I find to be eminently understandable but I think sometimes people forget at the Embrace of the Republican party because I think that's harder to look in the mirror but we have to if we're going to win this thing we have have to do it um we just do and that is actually like 47:05 that is lateral work that is the work of community it's the stuff that we don't want to do right we no one wants to be like there are plenty of folks and some people are legitimately not s like I'm not going to sit here and tell the trans Community to endanger themselves or anything like that but like you know there are people out there like if you actually have ever canvased before and knock on doors you know that like most people do not have neat worldviews that fit in one category or another it's a hodge podge of things and they'll have some from one and some from the other and like the most important thing that you can do is find those people and start to build relationship with them now because a lot of people don't change how they vote based on a 48:06 debate they don't a lot of people may not change how they vote because they see a video from me maybe some do but most people like a lot of people will change how they vote based on someone they care about sometimes I know a lot of people have had a lot of painful experience where that's not the case but if you slowly you know it's like when people start seeing actions happen around them when they start you know first it's like oh there's a town hall down the street they're not going to go but they're going to notice that it's happening people start getting the message eventually and that heart be Starts Now it can't and this is some this to me is where I think one area where the Democratic 49:01 party has historically been quite weak is we can't show up for election season like we need to be beating Hearts we need to be and I don't mean that like emotionally I mean like for me you know I I won my election and because I ran on a message of and I ran against the whole reason I ran is because I felt like our local representation was taking us for granted and he wasn't account and that you know there wasn't accountability to us that's why I ran and so because I won the way that I did because I ran against the Democratic party establishment because I wasn't supposed to win because they they still tried to kick me out like I always I never took that for 50:01 granted and I do yearr round organizing and I'm not the only one um there are plenty of good members that I think don't sometimes don't get the attention that they deserve um and um and do really good work but you know it's not just the party it's like all of us and um and it's about who we can change it's about who we can change and that's hard right how many of you how many of us have had a family member or like someone that you care about that you've lost to this kind of like Trump dark web how 51:01 many young boys do you know that gets sucked up into like this Andrew Tate stuff I feel genuinely really I don't even feel defensive about it or angry about it I feel like really bummed that the rightwing is like really dooming a lot of little boy trying to Doom a lot of little boys into unhappiness and like conditioning a lot of men into loneliness because of these ideas that they have around other people like it's really sad to be like it it it's genuinely sad and uh you know I think um that work that's like really complicated that's the work that we need to do there's just no two ways around it I mean I know you and I like you see those election 52:05 results you know like Trump has substantial support and we have to do a lot of work yes targeting it up at people in power but if we can do the lateral work and showing up laterally um it's not just it it is about applying pressure to elected officials and it is also about transforming each other and let me tell you they do it to us don't they don't they you know um gen Z had a decent amount of gen Z I mean listen jenzie didn't vote for Trump let's be very clear um but there were numbers there Gen X Gen X was like the 53:05 most trumpy voting generation they they voted I believe they voted for Trump more than even Baby Boomers did um you know but here's the thing if they swung it so can we and we really need to do that work because it is foundational it's it is the it is foundational and it's where they have directed a lot of their energy and it's time for us to do that too so wrapping up it's midnight that was a long ass speech and I got work tomorrow see y'all bye-bye

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