$21 TRILLION: Ocasio-Cortez Blasted For Making Up Absurd Pentagon Spending Claim

  |  
Dec 3, 2018

The youngest congresswoman-elect in the history of the United States made another horribly wrong claim on Twitter on Sunday in an attempt to justify the cost of Medicare for All.

“$21 TRILLION of Pentagon financial transactions ‘could not be traced, documented, or explained,’” she said, referencing an article by The Nation shared by far-left MoveOn’s Jordan Uhl.

“$21T in Pentagon accounting errors. Medicare for All costs ~$32T. That means 66% of Medicare for All could have been funded already by the Pentagon. And that’s before our premiums.”

“In all, at least a mind-boggling $21 trillion of Pentagon financial transactions between 1998 and 2015 could not be traced, documented, or explained, concluded Skidmore,” the article said.

The fact that the Pentagon cannot account for $21 trillion in transactions is not ideal, but Ocasio-Cortez equated the $21 trillion in accounting errors with $21 trillion spent, which is simply untrue.

Brian Reidl, a Senior Fellow at the Manhattan Institute explained:

“For those wondering: In the original study, $21 trillion refers to transfers back-and-forth between accounts,” he said. “So the same $1 can be counted 1000’s of times. It *does not* mean that $21 trillion in total spending was mis-spent. AOC should have realized $21T *spent* is crazy.”

But Ocasio-Cortez did not realize that $21 trillion spent is “crazy,” because common sense is not a virtue with which the political left is endowed, and to them, facts do not matter.

So, to be clear: The Pentagon did not spend $21 trillion that cannot be accounted for, and Medicare for All would still bankrupt the nation. Until she decides to put her thinking cap on, Ocasio-Cortez will be a gift to Republicans that keeps on giving.

Our Latest Articles