Harry Reid knocks Ocasio-Cortez’s tax proposal: Fast ‘radical change’ doesn’t work

Former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) issued criticism toward one of the Democratic Party’s newest members in a new interview, targeting freshman Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) over her proposal to raise the marginal tax rate on the richest Americans.

In an interview with The Nevada Independent, Reid cautioned the New York congresswoman to pursue slower, incremental change rather than forcing Americans to accept what he said were “radical” policies.

{mosads}“A person could say we need to raise taxes a little bit,” Reid told the news outlet. “Again, when you talk about 70 percent and all that, we have to be careful because the American people are very conservative in the sense of not wanting radical change quickly.”

“It just doesn’t work,” the former Democratic Senate leader said. “I think the message has to be we’re a country that is good, that’s always been good. We’re not talking about ‘Make America Great Again;’ we’re great now. And I think what we have to do is make sure we do a better job.”

Reid also appeared to take aim at another policy backed by Ocasio-Cortez and members of the progressive wing of the Democratic Party in the interview, urging a 2020 Democratic contender against President Trump to talk about “restoring” ObamaCare rather than expanding health care further.

“It’s a shame what they’ve done with ObamaCare. That was certainly a step in the right direction,” Reid said. “The Democrat has to talk about health care, restoring ObamaCare or versions of it.”

Reid, who left the Senate in 2017, has remained largely silent since leaving Congress, but spoke out earlier this month against the president, calling Trump “without question the worst president we’ve ever had.”

“I think he is without question the worst president we’ve ever had,” Reid told The New York Times in a rare interview. “We’ve had some bad ones, and there’s not even a close second to him. He’ll lie. He’ll cheat. You can’t reason with him.”