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Veterans Affairs Secy Wilkie reacts to AOC's 'If it ain't broke don't fix it' comments

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (/ oʊ ˌ k ɑː s i oʊ k ɔːr ˈ t ɛ z /; born October 13, 1989), also known by her initials as AOC, is an American politician and activist. She became the U.S. Representative for New York's 14th congressional district in 2019. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's fierce defense of the Department of Veteran Affairs, saying, 'If it ain't broke, don't fix it,' has earned her flak from the very people who are served by the.

VA Secretary Robert Wilkie responds on 'Fox News @ Night' with Shannon Bream

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Secretary of Veterans Affairs Robert Wilkie struck back at Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., on Wednesday, calling her accusations that the Trump administration wants to privatize the VA 'nonsense.'

'I won't be rude to the congresswoman and say that it is nonsense, but I will say it's nonsense,' Wilkie said on 'Fox News @ Night with Shannon Bream.'

'If we are privatizing VA, we are going about it in a very strange way,' Wilkie said. 'I presented to the Congress a $220 billion budget, the largest budget in the history of the department. We are undergoing basic reforms to make the VA a modern, 21st-century health care administration. But what we are doing is opening the aperture on choice, so that our veterans remain at the center their own health care, and if VA can provide what they need, we will give them the opportunity to go out into the private sector.'

Ocasio-Cortez claimed during a New York town hall event last week that the VA “isn’t broken” despite the scandals that have plagued the agency over the last decade and claimed the Trump administration aimed to 'privatize' health care for veterans.

'That is the opening approach we have seen when it comes to privatization, it's the idea that this thing that isn’t broken, this thing that provides some of the highest quality care to our veterans somehow needs to be fixed, optimized, tinkered with until we don’t even recognize it anymore,' Ocasio-Cortez said, in comments first reported by the Washington Examiner.

'They are trying to fix the VA for pharmaceutical companies, they are trying to fix the VA for insurance corporations, and, ultimately they are trying to fix the VA for a for-profit health care industry that does not put people or veterans first,' Ocasio-Cortez said.

“And so we have a responsibility to protect it.”

The congresswoman's comments were aimed at Trump administration efforts to expand choice and private health care options in the VA health care system.

President Trump reacted to the congresswoman's comments by taking credit for turning around the VA.

'Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is correct, the VA is not broken, it is doing great. But that is only because of the Trump Administration. We got Veterans Choice & Accountability passed,' Trump tweeted.

Wilkie defended the Trump administration and supported the president's response on Twitter.

'The other part of our comments or they were answered by the president, who said that under this administration, the VA isn't broken. The scandals that she referred to happened in another administration,' Wilkie said.

'I can say, as someone who's been accused of being a historian, no president in the post-World War II era has put the veterans at the center of his campaign and administration until President Trump did it. We are seeing this in the way the VA's moving forward.'

Fox News' Adam Shaw contributed to this report.

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV), one of the few centrist Democrats in Washington, D.C., leveled Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) on Monday during an interview with The New York Times, which came in response to her trolling him on Twitter last month.

“I guess she put the dagger stare on me,” Manchin said. “I don’t know the young lady — I really don’t. I never met her. I’m understanding she’s not that active with her bills or in committee. She’s more active on Twitter than anything else.”

The New York Times noted that Manchin’s words constituted “a sharp insult” because in the U.S. Senate “legislative prowess is prized.”

Manchin’s words came after Ocasio-Cortez trolled him on Twitter in mid-November over his pushback against the far-left portion of the Democrat Party.

“Defund the police? Defund, my butt,” Manchin wrote on Twitter last month. “I’m a proud West Virginia Democrat. We are the party of working men and women. We want to protect Americans’ jobs & healthcare. We do not have some crazy socialist agenda, and we do not believe in defunding the police.”

Ocasio-Cortez responded by posting a picture of her glaring at him during the 2019 State of the Union address.

Ocasio Cortez Video Dance College

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) November 12, 2020

“We’re not going to defund the police, we’re not for the new green deal,” Manchin later added in the interview. “That’s not going to happen. We’re not for Medicare for All — we can’t even pay for Medicare for some.”

Manchin has previously mocked Ocasio-Cortez’s “Green New Deal,” which experts have said could cost up to $93 trillion.

“It’s not a deal. It’s a dream,” Manchin told CNN last year. “And that’s fine. People should have dreams, in the perfect world what they would like to see. I got to work with the realities, and I got to work the practical, what I have in front of me. I got to make sure our country has affordable, dependable, reliable energy 24/7. But you can’t just be a denier and say, ‘Well, I’m not going to use coal. I’m not going to use natural gas. I’m not going to use oil.’”

Ocasio Cortez Vaccine

“And you have to understand also the climate, we talk about global climate, Chris, it’s the globe. It’s not North American climate,” Manchin continued. “It’s not the United States climate. It’s the globe. How do we bring on China and India and everybody else who are great users of carbon right now, and polluters of carbon, to be carbon-free also, by using technology?”

Manchin triggered the hard Left last month when he committed to stopping the progressive wing of the Democrat Party if Democrats manage to win both of the U.S. Senate races in Georgia next month. If they win, the Senate would result in a 50-50 tie that a Vice President Kamala Harris could break, thus effectively giving Democrats the majority.

The Daily Wire reported:

Ocasio Cortez Vacation

Manchin made the remarks during an interview with Fox News anchor Bret Baier, who asked Manchin about a recent comment from Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer. Schumer said late last week that the Democrats will “change America” if they win two run-off Senate races in Georgia.

“Well, there’s a lot of people that are concerned. There’s a lot of fear tactics that are being used right now,” Manchin said. “If both of the Georgia senators were elected from the Democratic Party, then that would be 50/50, if both Dan Sullivan and Thom Tillis win; 50/50 means there’s a tie. But if one senator does not vote on the Democratic side, there is no tie and there is no bill.”

“So, I commit to you tonight and I commit to all of your viewers and everyone else that’s watching, I want to lay those fears, I want to rest those fears for you right now, because, when they talk about whether it be packing the courts or ending the filibuster, I will not vote to do that,” Manchin continued. “I will not vote to pack the courts. I think — and I will not vote to end the filibuster. Bret, this system, the Senate, this so unique body in the world, it was made to work together in a bipartisan way. And once you start breaking down those barriers, then you lose every reason that we are the institution that we are, the most deliberative body.”

“So, I want to lay those fears to rest, that that won’t happen, because I will not be the 50th Democrat voting to end that filibuster or to basically stack the court,” he added. “And then all the other things you’re hearing about, Bret, also, is — defund the police. I don’t know of any of the Democrats in the caucus that are for defunding the police. We are not for that whatsoever. And when they talk about basically Medicare for All, we can’t even pay for Medicare for some. It doesn’t make any sense at all. We have got to fix the Affordable Care Act we have. And I think our Republican — moderate Republicans will work with us to now repair what needs to be repaired.”

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