Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

• Yes: Standard deduction: a set dollar amount that reduces your taxable income
• No: Itemized deductions: you specify the expenses you want to reduce your taxable income

• Yes: No health insurance, Health insurance from your employer, Medicare, Veterans Affairs health care, Private health insurance you pay for out of pocket, Your state's Medicaid or Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP)
• No: Money you contributed to or withdrew from a Health Savings Account (HSA), Health insurance for you, your spouse, or dependents, bought directly through the Health Insurance Marketplace with HealthCare.gov or a state program (you would've received a Form 1095-A)

• Yes: Child Tax Credit, Earned Income Tax Credit, Credit for Other Dependents
• No: Claim any credits other than the ones listed above, Claim these credits or other tax benefits for a child as their non-custodial parent

Derec said:

So this Direct File is very limited and only applies to some people. Why?

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• Coordination with state taxes -- limits which states
• Handling of additional types of income

Galen Metzger on X: "I legitimately think AOC is as skilled a politician as Peltola, Perez, Kaptur, and other major overperformers are. We don't see it, because she's in a deep blue seat and is a target of the GOP media apparatus - But she is an incredibly effective advocate for Democratic party." / X

In an interview, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez said her decision to give to the campaign arm, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, was driven primarily by the dire threat of Republicans staying in power. She feared a Republican-controlled House would not certify a potential re-election of President Biden this fall.

“The entire country saw a terrorist attack on the United States Capitol that was predicated on not certifying the duly submitted results of a presidential election,” Ms. Ocasio-Cortez said of the riot on Jan. 6, 2021. “And if anybody thinks that that was not a dress rehearsal for what they may try to attempt in January of 2025, I’m sorry to say, but I think that’s a very naïve assumption.”

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Ms. Ocasio-Cortez has become one of the Democratic Party’s most prolific fund-raisers; her campaign committee has raised more than $37 million since 2019. She has raised another $11.1 million, according to her office, for nonfederal candidates and causes, including nonprofits, food banks and abortion-rights groups.

But until now, she had never given a dime to her own party’s leadership, even though House Democrats are each assigned “dues” that they are supposed to pay to remain members in good standing.

Ms. Ocasio-Cortez’s $260,000 contribution is earmarked specifically for the party’s Voter Protection Program. It is the first time a member of Congress has given money to a program that works on voter registration, poll observation and litigation.

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Her PAC has another $500,000 that she said was intended to defend fellow members of the squad from party challengers, a sum that she noted was larger than her transfer to the campaign arm.

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The “foundational element” of her decision to give now, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez said, was to make sure she helped Democrats take back the House, which Republicans only narrowly control now.

She said she had little confidence that Speaker Mike Johnson, who is set to appear at Mar-a-Lago on Friday with former President Donald J. Trump to make an “election integrity” announcement, would rebuff any efforts by Mr. Trump to overturn the election.

“This party has turned into a party of Trumpism and it has turned into a cult of personality,” she said. “I don’t know if Mike Johnson has it in him to defend our democracy against a threat like that.”

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oday, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY-14), Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), and Rep. Delia Ramirez (IL-03) reintroduced the Green New Deal for Public Housing Act in partnership with public housing residents, affordable housing advocates, and climate change activists. The sweeping legislation aims to retrofit, rehabilitate, expand, and decarbonize the entire nation’s public housing stock through an estimated $162 to $234 billion investment over the next ten years.

“Years of grassroots organizing on behalf of vulnerable Americans led to the creation of the first federal public housing units but for decades the federal government has allowed our limited public housing stock to fall into disrepair. Residents are dealing with mold growth, lead-based paint hazards, lack of central cooling and heating, failing water infrastructure, and numerous other safety concerns. It is beyond time for the federal government to take responsibility and pass legislation that offers comprehensive, public solutions,” said Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez. “The Green New Deal for Public Housing Act will allow for an increase in public housing units, create an estimated 280,000 jobs, and invest up to $23 billion a year over ten years for highly energy-efficient developments. This will produce on-site renewable energy, expand workforce capacity, and focus on community development. Every American deserves to live in a safe, vibrant, and environmentally conscious community — including public housing residents. I am confident this legislation is how we make that a reality.”

“In these difficult times, we must move forward boldly to address the systemic and existential crises facing us today and that includes urgently combating climate change and making sure every American has a safe and decent place to call home,” said Senator Sanders. “It is unacceptable that, on a single given night in America, over 650,000 people are homeless. It is unacceptable that, in the richest country in the history of the world, people are choosing between paying rent and putting food on the table. It is unacceptable that our nation’s public housing is in a state of chronic disrepair and energy inefficiency after generations of government neglect. It is unacceptable that we have not done more to transform our energy systems, our communities, and our infrastructure away from fossils and toward renewable energy. This legislation is a major step in the right direction, and I am proud to partner with Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez in introducing it today.”

"Safe, sustainable, resilient, affordable housing is a HUMAN RIGHT, plain and simple. The policies we advance in Congress must help us realize that truth for EVERYONE. As our nation reckons with both a worsening housing crisis and urgent climate crisis, we must fight for and realize bold policy action and investment," said Congresswoman Delia Ramirez. "I am proud to stand with Representative Ocasio-Cortez and Senator Sanders to introduce legislation that will secure the future of our public housing, prioritize climate and racial justice, and boost our economy and labor force. The Green New Deal for Public Housing is a bold solution to confront unprecedented challenges."

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• Expand federal programs to provide residents with meaningful work investing in their communities, to own and operate resident businesses, to move toward financial independence, and to participate in the management of public housing.
• Expand resident councils so that public housing residents have a seat at the table for important decisions regarding their homes.
• Replenish the public housing capital backlog and repeal the Faircloth Amendment, which limits the construction of new public housing developments.

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• Deep energy retrofits to increase energy savings in all 970,000 public housing units;
• Addressing community workforce development needs by prioritizing good-paying job opportunities for residents;
• Energy efficiency, building electrification, and water quality upgrades;
• Community renewable energy generation, the profits of which will be controlled by Public Housing Agencies (PHAs) to boost their coffers and increase self-sufficiency;
• Recycling;
• Community resiliency and sustainability;
• Climate adaptation and emergency disaster response.

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Senate Cosponsors: Blumenthal, Booker, Markey, Merkley, Padilla, Warren, Welch

House Cosponsors: Ramirez, Balint, Barragán, Blumenauer, Bowman, Boyle, Bush, Carter, Casar, Clarke, Cohen, D. Davis, Dingell, Espaillat, Frost, C. Garcia, R. Garcia, Goldman, Gomez, Grijalva, Norton, Huffman, Ivey, J. Jackson, Jayapal, H. Johnson, Khanna, B. Lee, S. Lee, Lieu, McCollum, McGovern, Meeks, Meng, Mullin, Nadler, Napolitano, Omar, Pingree, Pressley, Raskin, Sánchez, Schakowsky, A. Smith, Stansbury, Suozzi, Swalwell, Thanedar, Tlaib, Tonko, R. Torres, Velázquez, Watson-Coleman, F. Wilson

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Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) today reintroduced essential legislation that would take on the affordable housing crisis and the existential threat of climate change. The Green New Deal for Public Housing Act invests up to $234 billion over ten years to transition the entire public housing stock in the United States into zero-carbon, highly energy-efficient homes – dramatically improving living conditions for nearly 2 million people in public housing across the country. The legislation also creates up to 280,000 good-paying, union jobs per year, while reducing annual carbon emissions by roughly 5.7 million metric tons – the equivalent of taking over 1.26 million cars off the road.

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The purpose of this Act is—

(1) to stimulate, gather, and develop the workforce capacity, tools, financing, and materials needed to rehabilitate, upgrade, modernize, maintain, staff, and transition public housing;

(2) to rehabilitate and preserve public housing that is severely distressed and causing residents to be exposed to unhealthy and unsafe environments;

(3) to upgrade and equip all public housing with cutting-edge materials, infrastructure, and all-electric appliances made in the United States in order to improve energy efficiency, water quality, and material living standards in public housing and to support United States manufacturing;

(4) to ensure that public housing laws maximize tenant participation and management by low- and very low-income individuals in the rehabilitation, upgrade, and transition of public housing through education, training, and jobs; and

(5) to modernize the entire public housing stock of the United States, as swiftly and seamlessly as possible, into highly energy-efficient homes that produce on-site, or procure, enough carbon-free renewable energy to meet total energy consumption annually.

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“We have to return to an era of rebuilding public housing in the United States. And we have to reject the idea that it's broken policy,” Ocasio-Cortez said at a press conference rolling out the legislation Thursday.

According to the congresswoman’s office, the bill would invest between $162 billion and $234 billion over a decade into rehabilitating and decarbonizing the nation’s public housing stock.

It also would eliminate a federal policy, the so-called Faircloth Amendment, that restricts the construction of more public housing units.

In New York City, Ocasio-Cortez says the proposal would help the city’s housing authority (NYCHA) tackle the $40 billion backlog in needed improvements, while also creating tens of thousands of jobs.

“Transitioning from our boilers to solar. Transitioning from gas to electric. Transitioning our appliances from dirty to clean. And we would also make sure that all of that work is being done by NYCHA residents, and by union labor,” Ocasio-Cortez said.

Bowman, in his remarks, echoed Jimmy McMillan, saying, “the rent is too damn high, y’all.”

“Housing is healthcare. Housing is about self-esteem and self-worth,” Bowman said.

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Derec said:

So this Direct File is very limited and only applies to some people. Why?

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Housing is a human right.

The reason people are on the streets isn’t a mystery. Housing is too expensive, there isn’t enough that’s affordable, and the federal government has neglected public housing for far too long.

@SenSanders and I know a way to combat the housing crisis, all while creating union jobs AND tackling climate change.

It’s called the Green New Deal for Public Housing.

A better world - where more Americans can afford safe and reliable housing - is within our reach.

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Our Green New Deal for Public Housing is a win-win-win for America
This legislation addresses four crises facing the country.

The U.S. has lost 1 in 4 public housing units to privatization, demolition and underfunding over the last decade.

We do not have to accept the status quo, where millions of families across this country are on the brink of eviction and affordable social and public housing remains out of reach.

We do not have to accept the fact that in the richest nation in the history of the world, more than 650,000 people g to sleep each night without a roof over their heads.

We can imagine a better world, where housing is plentiful, affordable and sustainable -- where all Americans have a place to call home, where public housing has community centers for our seniors, playgrounds for our children and energy sources that don't filling up our lungs with! pollution.

This better world is possible. All it requires is the necessary political will.

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• 116: 2019-2020 -- H.Res.109 101(67) -- S.Res.59 14 (11)
• 117: 2021-2022 -- H.Res.332 104(101) -- S.Res.166 12(12)
• 118: 2023-2024 -- H.Res.319 96(93) -- S.Res.173 12(11)

• 116: 2019-2020 -- H.R.5185 26(14) -- S.2876 3(2)
• 117: 2021-2022 -- H.R.2664 45(22) -- S.1218 6(3)
• 118: 2023-2024 -- H.R.7782 57(55) (introduced 03/21/2024)

• 117: 2021-2022 -- H.R.4442 70(32) -- S.2259 0(0) "Resilient Schools Act"
• 118: 2023-2024 -- H.R.5784 81(77) -- S.2988 3(1)

• 118: 2023-2024 -- H.R.2764 27(21)

• 118: 2023-2024 -- H.R.5007 1(0) -- S.2657 0(0)

Last week, something exciting happened: The Biden Administration announced the official launch of the American Climate Corps (in addition to rolling out $7 billion in federal grants for residential solar investments in low-income communities).

When a Climate Corps program was initially proposed by organizations like the Sunrise Movement and Congressional leaders like Sen. Ed Markey and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, I remember thinking to myself, “Well that’s a lovely idea . . . but yeah right.” Reviving one of the most radical New Deal programs, the Civilian Conservation Corps, to put thousands of young people to work decarbonizing the country? It sounded like a leftwing pipedream. But there was Biden last week, standing next to AOC to describe in concrete, practical terms how you can now apply for a job with the Corps. After five years of electoral organizing, civil disobedience, and legislative advocacy pushing this proposal, it was an announcement worth celebrating—at least for a moment— before diving back into the fight.

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The American Climate Corps will mobilize a new, diverse generation of more than 20,000 Americans – putting them to work conserving and restoring our lands and waters, bolstering community resilience, deploying clean energy, implementing energy efficient technologies, and advancing environmental justice, all while creating pathways to high-quality, good-paying clean energy and climate resilience jobs in the public and private sectors after they complete their paid training program.

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Train young people in clean energy, conservation and climate resilience related skills: The American Climate Corps is a new initiative that will provide the next generation of Americans with job training and service opportunities to work on a wide range of projects that tackle climate change – including restoring coastal wetlands to protect communities from storm surges and flooding, deploying clean energy, managing forests to improve health and prevent catastrophic wildfires, implementing energy efficient solutions to cut energy bills for hardworking families, and more.

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We will make sure our American Climate Corps is ambitious, just, and unapologetically pro-union. That it’s done by and for those who have been locked out and left behind in the past, especially Black, Brown, and Indigenous communities. And that our Climate Corps members tackle thousands of projects with one shared purpose – to build a world worth saving. We’ll need all three of our Green New Deal principles: union jobs, environmental justice, and climate action...The American Climate Corps members we salute, celebrate, and call to action today showcase the best of those principles. Generosity, not greed. Excellence, not exploitation. Hope, not hate... Thank you, President Biden, for this opportunity. And thank you to all the present and future American Climate Corpsmembers for showing up in solidarity, and in service.

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Join the next generation of clean energy and climate resilience workers at ClimateCorps.gov.

Our kids and grandkids are counting on us.

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Speaking at an event in Virginia, Biden announced that his administration is making $7 billion in grants available to help provide solar power to the homes of more than 900,000 low-income families. His was joined for the announcement by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., Sen. Edward Markey, D-Mass., and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y.

The money for the solar panels will flow through Environmental Protection Agency's Solar for All grant competition, which was part of Biden's landmark climate change law dubbed the Inflation Reduction Act. The law is expected to create 200,000 jobs and save households in the program about $400 a year, the White House said.

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But for a segment of the online left, this was not a moment to celebrate. For them, given Biden's terrible Gaza policy, there was only one relevant takeaway from the event: AOC, by standing next to the president showed she was a “a pathetic, spineless coward,” as one representative tweet on X put it. Nevermind that AOC has been one of the most sustained and effective critics of Biden’s uncritical support for Israel's war; nevermind that she provided arguably the highest-profile definition of Israel’s conduct in Gaza as an “unfolding genocide”; nevermind, even, that she took the opportunity at that very Earth Day event to loudly praise campus protesters.

...
This left-wing AOC derangement syndrome has a lot to say both about the brand of politics that AOC’s haters represent and the role she occupies within our political system.

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What they do represent, to a profoundly precise degree, is a particular strain of leftist politics that has been an obstacle to the goals of our movement for a very long time. Indeed, one’s stance on AOC may just be the most accurate diagnostic test we’ve got of what a supposed leftist is most interested in. Do they want to change the world, or to engage in in-group masturbatory preening? Do they want to win, or do they want to lose?

Much has been written about the proclivity of some on the left to valorize defeat—to, as my friend Sam Adler-Bell put it, “imagine there is some meaningful consolation in losing righteously.”

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It requires a disciplined focus on winning over persuadable people, growing our movement, engaging in coalition politics, and making once-radical propositions seem reasonable, even mundane. These are all things that AOC does incredibly well. And they’re the very same proclivities that her haters use to brand her an enemy of the cause.

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It’s tough being a member of the “Squad” these days. Once the darlings of the American left, the group of progressive and socialist House members that includes Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, Jamaal Bowman, and others are as likely to be savaged these days from the Left as they are from the Right. Popular YouTube commentators regularly denounce them as “sellouts,” protesters interrupt their meetings calling them warmongers, and even committed socialists question what the point of the Squad has been.

The lion’s share of this ire has been trained on Representative Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), who’s faced relentless criticism since winning office from all sides, sometimes over substantive issues (once failing to show up for an Amazon union rally, casting a vote that denied railworkers the ability to strike), sometimes over remarkably petty ones (conciliatory rhetoric, the positioning of her hands while being arrested).

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President Joe Biden’s administration issued rules Thursday ordering power companies to cut pollution from coal plants — a major plank in his efforts to fight climate change, amid complaints from progressive green voters who say he’s done too little to curb fossil fuels.

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Of course, the most vitriolic attacks on AOC stem from her support for Biden’s reelection. But what is the alternative strategy? AOC has a clear theory of change for her position: “I think about what conditions do I want to be organizing under in the next four years . . . I would rather, even in places of stark disagreement, I would rather be organizing under the conditions of Biden as an opponent on an issue than Trump . . . I am taking [Trump’s threat to democracy] very seriously, because we will not be able to organize for any movement towards anything [under] the kind of authoritarianism that he threatens.” That’s a strong, empirically-rooted analysis. It’s possible to disagree with her position. But you’d need a persuasive argument for why our movements—for a livable future, unions for all, reproductive justice, and so much more—aren’t massively better off under Biden than Trump. I haven’t heard any such argument from AOC’s haters, or any competing, reality-based theories of change regarding the 2024 election.

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 Duverger's law

Our movement needs to start calling out AOC derangement syndrome for what it is. It’s not just stupid. It’s not just cynical. It is, in actual fact, the perfect distillation of a strain of left politics that represents a betrayal of our cause. As progressives, we have a duty to win. Relentlessly tearing down one of our most effective leaders—someone who’s proven she is able to use both the legislative process and the bully pulpit to move us materially closer to the world we need and deserve—undermines our capacity to win. And that is unforgivable.

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First impressions are hard to erase, and the obstinacy that made Ms. Ocasio-Cortez an instant national celebrity remains at the heart of her detractors’ most enduring critique: that she is a performer, out for herself, with a reach that exceeds her grasp.
But Democrats frustrated by her theatrics may be missing a more compelling picture. In straddling the line between outsider and insider, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez is trying to achieve the one thing that might just shore up her fractured party: building a new Democratic coalition that can consistently draw a majority of American support.



To grasp what sets Ms. Ocasio-Cortez apart from many of her colleagues, you have to understand where she finds allies. In 2019, she and Senator Ted Cruz of Texas considered joining forces to write a bill that would bar former members of Congress from becoming lobbyists. Asked why she would consider an alliance with someone so loathed by liberals, she said, “I will swallow all of my distaste in this situation because we have found a common interest.” It was a window into the politician she would become: pragmatic and results-driven, willing to work with people she considers her political adversaries, at least on legislation that appeals to her base.

That effort with Mr. Cruz sputtered out, but she has continued to strike up working relationships with Republicans such as Dan Crenshaw of Texas, a former Navy SEAL who has supported the construction of a border wall as well as efforts to roll back abortion rights. Last year, she cosponsored a bill he’d introduced to study psychedelic drug therapy as a potential treatment for active service members with PTSD and traumatic brain injuries. She had first introduced an amendment to encourage psychedelic drug research in 2019, six months into her first term; it failed by a 331-to-91 vote. “It was on the House floor, and a member of my own party, a senior member, walked up to me and said, ‘Oh, is this your little shrooms bill?’” Ms. Ocasio-Cortez, who declined to be interviewed for this article, told The Washington Post last year. Four years later, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez and Mr. Crenshaw were able to drum up bipartisan support to pass the measure.

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southernhybrid said:

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/04/...e_code=1.qE0.PA8T.VW8EoUMsxmZj&smid=url-share

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It was a window into the politician she would become: pragmatic and results-driven, willing to work with people she considers her political adversaries, at least on legislation that appeals to her base.

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For decades, bipartisanship has meant bringing together moderates, lobbyists and establishment insiders to produce watered-down legislation unpalatable to many voters in both political parties. What Ms. Ocasio-Cortez is doing is different; she’s uniting politicians on the fringes of American politics around a broadly popular set of policies.

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The few policy matters on which progressives and conservatives align often boil down to a distrust of politicians and of big corporations, particularly technology companies and pharmaceutical giants. Ms. Ocasio-Cortez has shrewdly made those causes her passion, building alliances with conservative colleagues interested in holding these industries accountable.

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In that, someone like Ms. Ocasio-Cortez, who endorsed Mr. Biden for re-election in 2023, may be able to help. She’s the Democratic Party’s most charismatic politician since Barack Obama and its most ardent populist since Bernie Sanders. Crucially, she can offer voters something more substantial than a hollow rebuke of Trumpism. Last month, when the journalist Mehdi Hasan asked her how she’d respond to “a young progressive or Arab American who says to you, ‘I just can’t vote for Biden again after what he’s enabled in Gaza,’” Ms. Ocasio-Cortez said a vote for Mr. Biden didn’t necessarily mean an endorsement of all his policies. “Even in places of stark disagreement, I would rather be organizing under the conditions of Biden as an opponent on an issue than Trump,” she said. It was a shrewd political maneuver, designed to distance herself from Democrats who support Israel unconditionally, while meeting voters — some of whom have lost family members in Gaza — where they are. She was, in effect, acknowledging their pain and attempting to channel their righteous anger into a political movement.

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I want people to imagine a different world. We do not have to accept this world that we are living in now. We can imagine, and we can achieve, something new. Imagine waking up in your apartment. It's beautiful, it's affordable, you can raise a family in it. You walk outside, and there's a beautiful playground, and there's kids already playing in that playground. Your children go out there, and they are connected to a community. You turn around the corner, and in that building there's a community center where seniors are preparing activities and that they're getting ready to to connect with one another. We walk out and there's a barbecue on a Saturday, and your school is good, and the energy that powers your home is not filling up your lungs, and you don't have to worry if the paint on the walls is exposing your kid to lead. The water that you drink is fresh and crisp, and all of this can be done without bankrupting ourselves. We have to return to an era of rebuilding public housing in the United States.

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