Ocasio-Cortez Blasted for Ignorance Over New York's Failed Amazon Deal
Mayor Bill de Blasio says AOC doesn't understand deal that cost New Yorkers 25,000 jobs
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Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-Bronx) has been blasted for her ignorance concerning the collapsed Amazon deal with New York that cost New Yorkers over 25,000 new jobs.
Democratic socialist Ocasio-Cortez's anti-Amazon rhetoric was widely considered to be a leading factor in the retail giant withdrawing from plan to open a major campus in the city.
As part of the deal, New York had offered tax incentives to Amazon to build the “HQ2” in the Long Island City neighborhood of the Queens borough.
Amazon said it would create between 25,000 and 40,000 high-paying jobs while the area would receive a $2.5 billion investment and benefit from an estimated incremental tax revenue of more than $10 billion.
Celebrating the news that the deal has now fallen through, Ocasio-Cortez claimed that $3 billion in tax incentives offered to Amazon could now, somehow, be spent on other things.
During an interview Sunday, Mayor Bill de Blasio said AOC was wrong to have claimed the collapse of the Amazon deal would free up $3B to fix the city’s subways and hire more teachers.
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Speaking on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” de Blasio agreed when host Chuck Todd said that the tax breaks offered to Amazon weren’t “money you had over here. And it was going over there.”
“Correct,” de Blasio said.
He added: “And that $3 billion that would go back in tax incentives was only after we were getting the jobs and getting the revenue.”
To further drive home the point, Todd said, “There’s not $3 billion in money —”
“There’s no money — right,” de Blasio said.
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According to the New York Post, the exchange came after Todd suggested there was a “factual divide” that kept Ocasio-Cortez from understanding “how this deal worked.”
He also played a video clip that showed her reacting on Thursday to Amazon’s cancellation of plans to build an office complex in Long Island City.
“If we were willing to give away $3 billion for this deal, we could invest those $3 billion in our district ourselves, if we wanted to,” Ocasio-Cortez said at the time.
"We could hire out more teachers.
"We can fix our subways.
"We can put a lot of people to work for that money if we wanted to."
Her remarks prompted President Trump’s son Donald Trump Jr. to tweet:
“Will someone please explain to me how it is possible for NYC to SPEND a $3 Billion tax break on anything? This is insanity.”
Will someone please explain to me how it is possible for NYC to SPEND a $3 Billion tax break on anything?
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) February 15, 2019
This is insanity. https://t.co/wSZPaJIvH6
Several conservative commentators also piled on, blasting Ocasio-Cortez for her “idiotic claim” and advising she “should retake basic math.”
