Using her first floor speech as a member of Congress to highlight the severe financial pain and insecurity the government shutdown has caused for millions of ordinary Americans, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) on Wednesday castigated President Donald Trump for holding “800,000 workers’ paychecks hostage” and argued that the record-long lapse in federal funding is emblematic of a systemic crisis of democracy.
“The truth is, this shutdown is about the erosion of American democracy and the subversion of our most basic governmental norms.”
—Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
“It is actually not about a wall, it is not about the border, and it is certainly not about the well-being of everyday Americans,” Ocasio-Cortez said of the shutdown, which is now in its fourth week with no end in sight. “The truth is, this shutdown is about the erosion of American democracy and the subversion of our most basic governmental norms.”
“It is not normal to shut down the government when we don’t get what we want. It is not normal for public servants to run away and hide from the public that they serve,” the New York congresswoman declared, referencing her unsuccessful search for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) in the Senate building on Wednesday. “And it is certainly not normal to starve the people we serve for a proposal that is wildly unpopular among the American people.”
Watch Ocasio-Cortez’s full remarks:
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To illustrate the shutdown’s impact on the daily lives of federal workers, the New York congresswoman told the story of one of her constituents, a Yemeni-American who works as an air traffic controller—a profession that has been deeply harmed by the partial government closure.
“He and air traffic controllers like him across the country missed their first paycheck this past week,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “He was telling me about how stressful his job is. Every single day air traffic controllers have thousands of people’s lives in their hands. And it is terrifying to think that almost every single air traffic controller in the United States is currently distracted at work because they don’t know when their next paycheck is coming.”
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