Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (left), Joe Manchin.Photo: Jenny Anderson/ABC via Getty; Greg Nash-Pool/Getty
New York Rep.Alexandria Ocasio-Cortezis taking fellow DemocratJoe Manchinto task for what she called “weird, patronizing behavior,” after the West Virginia senator called her “young lady” amid a split in their party over a sweeping new bill.
“In Washington, I usually know my questions of power are getting somewhere when the powerful stop referring to me as ‘Congresswoman’ and start referring to me as ‘young lady’ instead,” Ocasio-Cortez, a progressive,tweeted Sundayof her moderate colleague.
Manchin will be a key vote in the Senate to pass a $3.5 trillion spending package, given the Democrats' razor-thin majority. But he has said he cannot support the legislation unless the cost is reduced.
Ocasio-Cortez and her fellow progressives, meanwhile, initially wanted a much larger spending package and view the $3.5-trillion bill as a compromise.
“I keep my door open for everybody,” Manchin said. “It’s totally false. And those types of superlatives, it’s just awful. Continue to divide, divide, divide.”
“I don’t know that young lady that well,” he continued. “I really don’t. She’s just speculating and saying things.”
In a recent op-ed forThe Wall Street Journal, Manchin said he wouldn’t support the bill due to the nation’s debt and worries about inflation.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty
The latest plan calls for anincrease of the top corporate tax rate to 26.5 percent(up from the current rate, 21 percent) and restoring the top rate to 39.6 percent.
That top rate would apply to individuals earning more than $400,000 and married couples earning more than $450,000, NPR reports. The plan would also increase taxes on items such as nicotine and tobacco products.
Passing the legislation will require the approval of 50 Senate Democrats and likely every House Democrat.
The Republican minority overwhelmingly disapproves of the plan they call excessive while the Biden White House and Democrats say it would bring needed investments to child care, climate response, education and more.
source: people.com
