Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

The people caring for our own children--

The idea and this metaphor of a bootstrap started off as a joke because it is a physical impossibility to lift yourself up by a bootstrap.

7 million people have not been lifted off of food stamps in this country. They were kicked off food stamps in this country.

We are not doing enough by our own people in a democracy that is supposed to be by the people and for the people.

This legislation that I am putting forward along with my colleagues is literally just to recognize poverty in America.

The official poverty measure is largely based on 1950's, family arrangements, and spending patterns

40 million Americans live in what the government recognizes as poverty.

The current poverty line does not acknowledge geographic difference.

We do not truly understand the actual status of where people are.

I am testifying today not only as a Member of Congress, but as a former child of a family in poverty and who has family that continues to live in poverty.

I commend my colleague, Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez, on her legislation, Recognizing Poverty Act, that tackles the inadequacy of our current poverty measured.

The inadequacy of the existing poverty calculation is that it is too low, not that it is too high.

So, what we are seeing is that these technologies are almost automating injustices, both in our criminal justice system, but also automating biases that compound on the lack of diversity in Silicon Valley as well?

So, that authoritarianism or that immense concentration of power could be done by the state, as we see in China, but it also could be executed by mass corporations, as we see in the United States, correct?

Thank you again for holding a third hearing on something that is so important.

In a previous hearing, we were talking about how facial recognition oftentimes has had the highest error rates for black and brown Americans.

1 in 4 New York City luxury apartments is currently unsold.

Affordability gets distorted because we peg to metrics, like the area median income.

There are 3 empty apartments for every 1 person experiencing homelessness.

A lot of what gets deemed as affordable housing is not affordable.

So if you are making 10 bucks an hour, that is not affordable whatsoever, correct?

Did you ever try to look for 'affordable housing,' just to find that it is not actually affordable at all?

I wish that we could talk to you, Mr. Williams, and say that your story is an anomaly, but it is normal, and, increasingly, it is the new normal.

Does it impact funding for our roads?

If we don't answer the census, would that impact our school funding?