WASHINGTON, DC – After driving her $60,000 Tesla to her swank $5,000 per month Agora apartment in her expensive designer clothing, with a bag full of Whole Foods groceries in hand, former New York City bartender Sandy Cortez, aka. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez says she can’t afford to pay her $17,000 student loan balance and wants others to foot her bill.
Cortez, who earns $174,000 per year as a Congresswoman with free health benefits and an expense account says she can’t afford to pay off her student loans from Boston University where tuition is $58,000 per year.
Instead, Cortez continues spending on her outlandish and lavish luxuries instead of paying off her student loan.
“Let’s stop advancing this narrative that student loan debt is for the privileged. Do we really think a billionaire’s child is taking out student loans? First-generation college students are twice as likely to report they are behind in making student loan payments,” Cortez said.
Cortez lamented before Congress about her own student loan debt, crying before Congress that even she needs a bailout as a single woman earning nearly $200,000 per year.
“I’m 32 years old now,” she said. “I have over $17,000 in student loan debt, and I didn’t go to graduate school because I knew that getting another degree would drown me in debt that I would never be able to surpass. This is unacceptable.”
Yet, Cortez lives in one of the most upscale apartment buildings in Washington, D.C. the Agora. Monthly rent at the Agora for one and two-bedroom apartments ranges between $2,000 and $5,000 per month. The Agora features a private tennis court, golf simulator, rooftop pool, a billiards room, a full gym, an indoor bar, rooftop lounges, and indoor pool, and amenities anyone in debt probably cannot afford. Take a look at what her building has to offer.
Cortez drives a Tesla. Tesla Model 3’s range from $45,000 to $50,000 and instead of opting to pay off her student loan debt, Cortez opted to buy an expensive car that is way out of the price range of the average American. Let’s hope she didn’t lease it, because, from photos on the internet, she’s already banged it up a few times.
AOC came under fire in the past for her purchase of the Tesla, shortly after she claimed her Abuela (grandmother) was living in poverty in a hurricane-damaged home in Puerto Rico.
Recently, Cortez was criticized for illegally parking her expensive Tesla outside Whole Foods in her posh D.C. neighborhood. Ridiculed for its high-priced produce, Whole Foods has garnered the nickname “Whole Paycheck”, but that doesn’t stop AOC from overspending on organic produce instead of paying off her student debt on her own.
Cortez earns $174,000 per year as a Congresswoman and is also provided with an official office expense account. The Members’ Representational Allowance (MRA) allows AOC to defer costs associated with her being a Congresswoman to the taxpayers. According to a 2016 report, each member of Congress averaged about $994,671 each year from the MRA account.
In the end, it’s no surprise AOC cannot afford to pay off her last $17,000 in student loan debt as she continues to recklessly blow through her annual salary on an expensive and lavish lifestyle, one that most Americans can only dream of.
But now, she wants those struggling Americans to pay off her student debt. AOC serves on the Congressional House Financial Services Committee Only in America.