Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez isn't the future of the Democratic Party: Joe Lieberman
Democratic New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is not the future of the party, according to Joe Lieberman, a former Democrat from Connecticut who became an independent.
“With all respect,” he told FOX Business’ Neil Cavuto on Thursday, “I certainly hope she’s not the future and I don’t believe she is.”
Ocasio-Cortez, a self-described Democratic socialist, became the youngest women ever elected to Congress when she defeated incumbent Democrat Joe Crowley in a major upset last year. However in Lieberman’s opinion, she’s too “different” and “controversial” for the party that has now shifted largely to the center on the left-right political spectrum.
“If you look at the majority of new Democrats in the house, they tend to be, I say, center-left, if they are not left-left,” he said. “And that is because they had to be center-left to win some of those competitive swing districts that they took from Republicans. So that’s the hope.”
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Ocasio-Cortez recently proposed a 70 percent income tax rate on the nation’s highest earners to fund a new green energy plan.
But Lieberman said the U.S. already has a progressive income tax system.
“If you … accumulate income in the country the big bump is still in the middle class” he said. “So you’ve got to be careful about raising taxes too high … a 70 percent tax on high-income people is really done for political reasons.”
Ocasio-Cortez’s idea also caught the attention of billionaire Mark Cuban, who urged the newcomer to avoid partisanship.