Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez spars with Jake Tapper over $40 trillion policies: 'We can work to make these things happen'

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has defended her progressive platform after multiple reports indicated the congressional candidate’s policies could cost trillions of dollars.

In a tense interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper, the 28-year-old Democratic Socialist — who became a national phenomena after unseating 10-term incumbent Rep. Joe Crowley in a primary election earlier this summer — failed to explain how the country would pay for programs like Medicare-for-All and student loan forgiveness.

She stood by her campaign platform, however, describing the reported price tags as "generational investments" to improve the quality-of-life for future Americans.

"Medicare for all would save the American people a very large amount of money," she said on Sunday. "What we see as well is that these systems are not just pie in the sky. Many of them are accomplished by every modern, civilised democracy in the Western world. The United Kingdom has a form of single-payer health care — Canada, France, Germany. What we need to realise is that these investments are better and they are good for our future."

Her defence arrived after a study published by the free market-oriented think tank at George Mason University, the Mercatus Centre, estimated a universal health care system like Medicare for All would cost nearly $32tn over the next decade.

"These are generational investments so that not just, they’re not just short-term Band-Aids, but they’re real profound decisions about who we want to be as a nation and how we want to act as the wealthiest nation in the history of the world," she continued.

The news anchor confronted her over an apparent discrepancy in her proposal: raising taxes on the wealthy and other taxpayers is only estimated to garner nearly $2tn towards a Medicare-for-All program.

"Right, I get that," he said. “But I’m talking about the overall package, you say it isn't pie in the sky, but $40tn is quite a bit of money and the taxes that you talk about raising to pay for this, to pay for your agenda, only account for [$2tn]".

Ms Ocasio-Cortez acknowledged that "there are political realities" which could ultimately hinder Congress from implementing her bold initiatives, many of which stand to turn entire nationwide industries upside-down while making the case for more expansive domestic programs rather than military or other massive US expenditures.

"They don’t always happen with the wave of a wand, but we can work to make these things happen," she said. "When you look at the economic activity that it spurs, for example, if you look at my generation, millennials, the amount of economic activity that we do not engage, the fact that we delay purchasing homes, that we don't participate in the economy and purchasing cars, et cetera, as fully as possible, is a cost."