Ocasio-Cortez on push for changes: Only radicals ‘have changed this country’

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) said in a new interview that she believes only radicals “have changed this country.”

{mosads}Ocasio-Cortez made the remark during an interview on CBS’ “60 Minutes” program with Anderson Cooper that is set to broadcast on Sunday. 

The comment comes as the New York Democrat backs high tax rates on America’s wealthiest citizens to help finance an aggressive plan to combat climate change. The plan, known as the “Green New Deal,” aims to eliminate carbon emissions in the U.S. completely within 12 years.

“That is the goal. It’s ambitious,” Ocasio-Cortez said while discussing the deal. “It’s going to require a lot of rapid change that we don’t even conceive as possible right now. What is the problem with trying to push our technological capacities to the furthest extent possible?”

Few rookie members of Congress have put such bold ideas on the national agenda and stirred up as much controversy as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez who supports a #GreenNewDeal and says, “only radicals have changed this country.” https://t.co/2EBVY5OWLh pic.twitter.com/KihXYpC6eS

— 60 Minutes (@60Minutes) January 4, 2019

When pressed by Cooper during the interview about how the plan would ultimately require people to pay more in taxes, Ocasio-Cortez said there is an “element where people are going to have to start paying their fair share in taxes.” 

“You know, you look at our tax rates back in the sixties, and when you have an aggressive tax rate system, your tax rate from 0-$75,000 may be 10 percent or 15 percent, etcetera,” Ocasio-Cortez said.

“But once you get to the tippy tops on your 10 millionth dollar, sometimes you see tax rates as high as 60 or 70 percent,” she continued. “That doesn’t mean all $10 million are taxed at an extremely high rate. It means that as you climb this ladder, you should be contributing more.”

Cooper then told Ocasio-Cortez that what she is talking about is “a radical agenda compared to the way politics is done right now.”

“Well, I think that it only has ever been radicals that have changed this country,” Ocasio-Cortez replied.

“Abraham Lincoln made the radical decision to sign the Emancipation Proclamation,” Ocasio-Cortez continued. “Franklin Eleanor Roosevelt made the radical decision to embark on establishing programs like social security. That is radical.”

Cooper asked Ocasio-Cortez whether she would call herself a radical, to which the Democrat responded: “Yeah, it that’s what radical means, call me a radical.”