 In an interview with Jake Tapper on CNN, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez talked a little bit about COVID-19 and what needs to be done in order to protect Americans. And the reason why this interview stood out so much to me is because we've been talking a lot lately about leadership and, you know, how Trump is incapable of being a leader. Joe Biden has pretty much been MIA for the last week. And Bernie Sanders is currently leading. He's mobilizing his supporters to donate to coronavirus relief efforts, but the media won't talk about it. So to see someone nationally be a leader and, you know, tell us what solutions need to be implemented, I think this is important. It matters because people are scrambling to find anything to take comfort in. They're looking for a leader and they don't know what active measures need to be taken, right, in order to stop this from spreading and stop, you know, us from going into economic ruin personally. So AOC basically laid it all out, and I thought that what she said here, it showed why she is such a valuable leader in this country. One of the things that we're hearing over and over again from hospitals, again, is this point on personal protective equipment. There are not enough face masks, gloves, ventilators, hospital beds to get us through this. Many hospitals are already at capacity or are approaching capacity. And there is kind of no real stream in sight from the federal government on where these materials are coming from. You know, companies are donating what they can. That is great. It is not enough. And the fact that the president has not really invoked the Defense Production Act for the purpose of emergency manufacture is going to cost lives. The FEMA administrator, I asked him about that. He said it's not needed because so many American companies are stepping up to the plate and volunteering to do the right thing. Your response? It is absolutely needed. We are thankful to anyone who's pitching in on this effort, but we are nowhere near the beds and the capacity that we need in this country. And we're hearing it every step of the way from this administration. First we were hearing it was a hoax. Then we were hearing that everything was fine. Then we were hearing that the fundamentals of the economy was okay until the crash comes. And we cannot wait until people start really dying in large numbers to start production, especially if more complicated equipment like ventilators and hospital beds. We need to start this production right now to get ready for the surge that is coming in two to three weeks. Let's turn to Congress. Right now negotiations are ongoing on an economic stimulus package. Chief White House economic advisor Larry Kudlow said yesterday could be as high as $2 trillion. You've suggested that's still not enough. If you were writing this bill, how much would you spend and where would the money go? Well I think first and foremost, there is almost no number too small. I don't think a lot of people out there really understand the systemic shock that is being experienced in the economy right now. You know, folks are comparing this to 2008. This is very, very different than even 2008 because what we have seen is that almost overnight our entire economy, even the felt economy from jobs is seizing almost overnight. So the question is not just the size, but what we are doing with those funds. Because if we are having a huge package, and this is something for people to look out for, when this package rolls out, there is no reason for corporate bailouts to be included in an emergency relief package. We should be focusing is unemployment expanding? Are we getting checks in people's hands? Are we suspending mortgage, rent, and debt payments? If we are able to do that, if we are able to get money into households and stop the bleeding with pauses on money going out of households, then we can get working families through this thing. But if all of this money is going to bailing out the airline industry in a way that does not help workers, if it is going to bailing out banks and other industries without helping workers, then it is not going to be enough and in fact it could be too big. So it is really about how we are using these funds. So you seem to be suggesting that you support, as a lot of people do in both parties, direct payments to the American people. Some Democrats have said that the $1200 figure that has been proposed is way too small. How much money do you think the government should be giving the public directly and should it go to everyone or just people who need it? Well, so the financial services committee actually released their own plan. And I am very supportive of that plan, which has about $2,000 this month for every American with an additional $1,000 per child. But in addition to that, it stops payments. So it halts mortgage payments, rent payments, and all major consumer debt. And that is the key, because when you are able to stop the money going out, and that money that you do give goes a much longer way. So I'm very supportive of both of those measures. The Democrats are truly lucky to have her. And it's really a shame that she has to share a party with people like Nancy Pelosi and Joe Biden, because they're just, they're diametrically opposed. And they don't deserve to benefit from her credibility and her vision and leadership. They don't deserve her. But everything she said there was incredibly crucial. First of all, she made it very clear that the thing to do now is for Trump to utilize the Defense Production Act and let's make some medical equipment. Like the number one thing we are hearing from healthcare providers and doctors and professionals is that they're running out of medical equipment. Masks, ventilators, like what are we doing? Like we're talking about flattening the curve, and I think that's really important. It's why we have to practice social distancing. But if we can't flatten the curve and hospitals become overburdened, we also have to prepare for that situation as well, because we can't afford not to be prepared. We can't afford to assume that social distancing is going to work. Or a Wuhan-style lockdown is going to work. We have to prepare for the worst, hope for the best. And the fact that Trump isn't utilizing the Defense Production Act is such a missed opportunity, it shows that he doesn't really know what he's doing. Like he's in over his head. And I'm glad that she said that. Now, at the rate that we're going, unless we take substantial action and we do prepare for hospitals around the country being overburdened, we could be worse off than Italy or Spain. And I'm not being hyperbolic. The rate to which corona tests are coming back positive is growing faster than any other country in the world. Now, part of that is because we're finally actually making testing more available and easier to access, mostly for rich people, but slowly but surely more people are getting tested, hence why the number is going up. But as we kind of learn just how bad the pandemic is going to get, the depths of it, we have to prepare for everything. And the fact that we're not, it just is so frustrating. And at a time when we should be making direct cash payments to Americans, our number one priority, that's not what we're doing. And she spoke to that as well. She talks about how the government can take meaningful action to make sure that working Americans don't suffer if we in fact face a recession. And it's not going to be a 2008-style recession. We're talking great depression or worse possibly based on current projections. I mean, if we actually get to 30% unemployment, that would surpass great depression levels of unemployment. It would be unthinkable. It would be a disaster. So there are things we can do, though, but they don't want to do that. Republicans don't want to actually ameliorate this crisis. They care about doing the bidding of their corporate donors. And it seemed like for a second, maybe they would try to throw the American people a bone because they probably recognize that capitalism can't function if the working class has no money to buy the goods and services produced by capitalists. However, the fact that they're prioritizing corporate bailouts, it tells you exactly where their priorities lie. They never for a second actually cared about the American people. They only care about Americans in so far as they are some benefit to American corporations and elites. But so long as we're unable to contribute to large multinational corporations and American corporations, then our lives then become meaningless. Protecting us is only important in so far as it doesn't hurt the economy. So the fact that we even have to debate this long about what to do, it is absolutely mind boggling. Because like you can leave workers and normal Americans stranded for years, decades, that's what they've been doing. But when push comes to shove, if we see a 30% worst case scenario unemployment rate, if we see thousands of people kicked out because they can't afford to pay rents, if we see an increase in homelessness. I mean, fuck all of these bailouts for companies, the oil industry, the airlines. That doesn't matter because if Americans can't afford airline tickets, if they can't afford to spend money and stimulate the economy, capitalism can't survive. So you have to at least provide the bare minimum to Americans. And in this crisis, giving them the bare minimum, assuring that they're not going to lose everything is the bare minimum. And it seems swift. It seems drastic to consider direct cash payments to people, universal basic income temporarily. But that's what you have to do if you want the system to remain in place. Because people are very apathetic and complacent, generally speaking, when it comes to politics. But if you don't do anything as they watched our livelihoods being taken away from them, that's when we're going to go into full crisis mode. Because people are only going to be apathetic in so far as you keep them at least a little bit comfortable. But when you strip away that comfort and take everything away from them, that's when things start to get rough. Rough for lawmakers, that is.