Ocasio-Cortez: Give stimulus checks to everyone now, collect next year from those who don’t need them

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) said Sunday that stimulus checks should be sent to all Americans and then collected next year in taxes from Americans who don’t need the assistance. 

“I do think it should be universal,” Ocasio-Cortez said on CNN’s “State of the Union,” referring to her support for a stimulus check program amid the economic fallout of the coronavirus pandemic. 

“I hear the argument of people saying, ‘Why you are going to give a check to Bill Gates?’” she said, adding that the issue can be solved next year. 

“One of the things that we’re saying is tax it back a year from now so you don’t have to worry about a big, complicated, bureaucratic means test upfront. Mail them all out to everybody, and let’s get it back from the folks who don’t need it next year,” the congresswoman said. 

Ocasio-Cortez said she is “very supportive” of the plan released by the Financial Services Committee that she said would release about $2,000 this month for every American with an additional $1,000 per child.

She also said the plan would halt mortgage and rent payments, which she said is a key concern. 

“When you’re able to stop the money going out, then that money that you do give goes a much longer way,” she added. 

Ocasio-Cortez also said she’s been worried about workers from the moment business closures started happening. 

“All I can think about is what I would have done just two or three years ago,” she added. 

She said she’s concerned about hourly and gig workers who would not be covered by unemployment, further stressing the need to get checks to Americans.