Far-left New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is known for making bizarre statements, a trait that was on display again this week.
According to Fox News, the Democratic congresswoman said America needs more immigrants because capitalism has made it too difficult for American women to have children.
Lawmaker blames the low birth rate on “the burdens of capitalism”
The network reported that Ocasio-Cortez claimed in an Instagram post that a free market system isn’t conducive to forming families.
“There are quite a few countries that are really struggling because young people, under the burdens of capitalism and living in a society that is increasingly concentrating wealth among the rich, we’re not having kids. Or we’re not having kids at the same rate,” Fox News quoted her as saying.
Ocasio-Cortez’s contention that capitalism is to blame for declining births seems odd given how data provided by the World Bank shows that for decades, communist Cuba had a lower total fertility rate than the United States.
The lawmaker then argued that newcomers are needed for America to maintain fiscal solvency, saying, “And we actually need immigrant populations to help balance things out.”
“We can’t continue to fund social security, Medicare, all of this stuff without immigrants. And it’s always been that way. Don’t act like this is some new trend or anything like that,” Ocasio-Cortez insisted.
“What a lot of Republican politicians fail to understand is that not everyone shares their zero-sum, scarcity mindset. Many of us understand that immigrants and refugees are a blessing,” she argued.
However, a 2021 study released by the Center for Immigration Studies found that immigrant families are more likely to use public welfare programs.
Ocasio-Cortez says Martha’s Vineyard is “what the best of America looks like”
Ocasio-Cortez also praised the overwhelmingly Democratic residents of Martha’s Vineyard for the way that they responded to the arrival of 50 illegal migrants.
“Shout out to Massachusetts and the people of Martha’s Vineyard for showing the world what the best of America looks like,” she declared.
In fact, NBC News correspondent Emilie Ikeda reported that National Guard troops helped move the migrants to a military base roughly 48 hours after they showed up.