Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) criticized Republicans for “the sheer mediocrity of witnesses” they called forth during House committee hearings. Ocasio-Cortez said the GOP "brought in a guy... backed by oil lobbyists arguing that fossil fuels are 'healthy.'"
"It’s embarrassing," she said.
The freshman Congresswoman added that she expected the GOP's witnesses "would be well-prepated" and that they'd testify before the committee with "sophisticated arguments for the opposing view." The reality, she said, is that the majority of these arguments are "sloppy" and "reaching."
"I think if everyday GOP voters saw the witnesses called on their behalf, they’d be upset," she said.
Others agreed.
Ocasio-Cortez's comments came after Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta's appearance at a House Education and Labor Committee hearing on Wednesday. Acosta had been criticized for displaying little understanding of the link between women's contraception and health. Representative Lauren Underwood (D-IL), a nurse, was particularly critical.
"For women, reproductive health care is health care," she told Acosta. "But your department has issued rules that deny the science of reproductive health care and allow employers to deny workers health insurance that covers contraceptives. Despite the fact that courts have repeatedly blocked these rules, you and this administration are continuing your efforts to deny women contraceptive coverage.”
Ocasio-Cortez has sparred with several lobbyists this week while expressing her disdain over the often enormous power lobbying efforts have on government policy.
Earlier this week, after NRA lobbyist Chris Cox warned that Democrats are “in for a rude awakening in November of next year when the real America goes to the polls” if they support Ocasio-Cortez's "socialist wave."
“Wild that the NRA is suggesting the voters of NY-14 aren’t ‘real Americans’ because they don’t think assault weapons in school classrooms is a good idea," she wrote.
Shortly afterward, following criticism from Republicans who accused her of seeking to advance her progressive agenda in her support for the Department of Veterans Affairs, which came amid efforts by large corporations to privatize the service.
Ocasio-Cortez said the GOP "participates in a lobbyist-friendly campaign to trash the VA" in the interest of deals with for-profit health care corporations.
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