Just back from a visit to Puerto Rico, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) was back on Twitter Wednesday night, wasting no time in calling out the US President.
“Just got back from a few (mostly) unplugged days visiting my abuela in PR, and I see the President is tweeting about me,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “Just another day at the office!”
Ocasio-Cortez added she represented one of the strongest concentrations of veterans in NYC, with the Bronx VA providing great care and community for the vets.
“The way to improve VA care & reduce wait times (which can be shorter than priv care!) is by fully funding it – not privatizing it,” said Ocasio-Cortez.
In an appearance at a town hall last week, Ocasio-Cortez had been vocal in deploring the privatisation of the VA, saying that the agency "isn't broken" and provides "some of the highest quality" care to veterans.
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Earlier, President Trump expressed rare agreement with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a Democratic Party progressive who is often accused of being a socialist by Republicans. Trump tweeted Wednesday that Ocasio-Cortez was "correct" to praise the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).
Last year Donald Trump signed the MISSION Act into effect, aimed at expanding the VA’s private health care options.
The act could nearly quadruple the number of veterans with the ability to go outside the federal system to seek private-sector care at the taxpayer's expense. The law is set to go into effect in June.
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Speaking at the signing event, the US President had said that if the VA couldn’t adequately meet the needs of a veteran in a timely manner, that veteran should be able to seek help from a private doctor.
The President’s move was hailed by The Veterans of Foreign Wars, the oldest vet service group in the country, who believe the move would ultimately give the VA the ability to “hire high-quality health care professionals, streamline VA community care programmes, expand caregiver benefits to pre-9/11 veterans and create a process to examine the VA’s capital infrastructure to better serve veterans.”
Keith Harman, national commander of the VFW and its Auxiliary, said the VA MISSION Act would go a long way towards improving the care veterans receive, while also leveraging the capabilities of the private sector when required.
“It will help recruit the best talent at the VA, which is what our veterans deserve, and it also extends caregiver benefits to every veteran who needs it,” said Harman.
Ocasio-Cortez, however, on Wednesday criticised GOP members for wanting to support greedy, private companies.
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New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, commonly referred to as AOC, is known for her frequent twitter tirades.
Most recently, Ocasio-Cortez declared on Twitter that she will support a resolution demanding a new probe into whether President Trump should face impeachment after special counsel Robert Mueller’s report.
“Mueller’s report is clear in pointing to Congress’ responsibility in investigating obstruction of justice by the President. It is our job as outlined in Article 1, Sec 2, Clause 5 of the US Constitution,” Ocasio-Cortez wrote in a fiery tweet, after US Attorney General William Barr said Mueller did not find any evidence that the Trump campaign conspired with Russia to interfere in the 2016 US presidential election.
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Barr also said Mueller’s report did conclude that Russia had tried to influence the US election, but no American was part of those efforts.
Russia has repeatedly refuted any claims of interference in the US political system, saying the allegations were made up to excuse the election loss of Trump's opponent as well as deflect public attention from actual instances of election fraud and corruption.