New York Rep. Ocasio Cortez is cheering the fact that she caused Amazon to look elsewhere for their second headquarters. The socialist somehow believes that the loss of tens of thousands of high paying jobs is somehow good for her community.
Amazon is set in its decision to pull out and never come back.
“For Amazon, the commitment to build a new headquarters requires positive, collaborative relationships with state and local elected officials who will be supportive over the long-term,” Amazon said in a statement.
But “a number of state and local politicians have made it clear that they oppose our presence and will not work with us to build the type of relationships that are required to go forward with the project we and many others envisioned in Long Island City,” the company admitted.
Jodi Seth, Amazon’s head of policy communications, told NBC News that same day the company blamed a few specific New York politicians for its decision.
“It wasn’t any one incident,” Seth noted. “It was that the environment over the course of the past three months had not got[ten] any better. There were some local and state elected officials who refused to meet with Amazon and criticized us day in and day out about the plan.”
“If you talk to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, it’s ‘Never Amazon,’” Seth added. “If you talk to [New York City Councilman Jimmy] Van Bramer [a Democrat], it’s unions.”
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The company would have brought an estimated 25,000 jobs to New York.
But Ocasio-Cortez and other liberals did not like the $3 billion in incentives that New York planned to award Amazon. They also resisted the second headquarters idea because they claimed it would lead to gentrification and skyrocketing housing prices.
The congresswoman celebrated Amazon’s retreat on Thursday.
“Anything is possible: today was the day a group of dedicated, everyday New Yorkers & their neighbors defeated Amazon’s corporate greed, its worker exploitation, and the power of the richest man in the world,” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted in triumph.
Ocasio-Cortez told reporters, “I think it’s incredible. I mean, it shows that everyday Americans still have the power to organize and fight for their communities and they can have more say in this country than the richest man in the world.”
“If we were willing to give away $3 billion for this deal, we could invest $3 billion in our district ourselves if we want to. We could hire more teachers, we can fix our subways, we can put a lot of people to work for that money if we wanted to,” Ocasio-Cortez added.
“There was no guarantee [of] those jobs for the New Yorkers that were here. We were looking at a deal that was not primarily putting the community first,” the congresswoman insisted.
Ocasio-Cortez pushed back against the criticism leveled at her for Amazon’s cancellation on Twitter on Friday.
“Come for me all you want, but my job is to make sure that people are protected in society,” the congresswoman wrote. “Someone’s got to look out for the people our system is leaving behind — esp now, when most of the wealth created is going to fewer people, those left behind are the majority of Americans.”
Come for me all you want, but my job is to make sure that people are protected in society.
Someone’s got to look out for the people our system is leaving behind – esp now, when most of the wealth created is going to fewer people, those left behind are the majority of Americans.
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) February 15, 2019
Absolutely disgraceful that @Amazon is driven from New York by left wing progressive politicians. Terrible loss of jobs for New York workers and New York economy.
— Rep. Pete King (@RepPeteKing) February 14, 2019
Even Gov. Cuomo slammed Ocasio-Cortez:
After killing Amazon's NYC HQ, not sure some progressive democrats deserve either title. This move was both anti-progress (negative for development and tech jobs) and anti-democratic (polls show 70% of NYers were in favor). Victory lap for them, not for NYC. #AmazonHQ2
— Lloyd Blankfein (@lloydblankfein) February 14, 2019
Yes, except there IS a “bad guy” here. The NYC politicians who apparently don’t understand how tax subsidies work. (NYC would not have “paid Amazon $3B.” We would have collected gigantic pots of tax revenue, as well as the spending power of 25,000 well-employed people.) https://t.co/Xz8J33HQ5k
— Henry Blodget (@hblodget) February 15, 2019
I hope that the same group of dedicated NYers will work with our tech sector to find a consolation prize for LIC and the kids who are growing up in NYC, being taught STEM skills in our public schools, and want good jobs that excite them and give them a path to better lives.
— Fred Wilson (@fredwilson) February 15, 2019
Source: Lifezette
Image: Dimitri Rodriguez
Tax revenue? Wait “the company”didn’t pay any federal taxes and had received tax money back. The tax revenue would have been from low paid employees wages with little to no benefits. A broad statement with no facts. Sounds like more corporate b******t.