Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) fired back at her conservative critics after she was mocked for saying that it is a âphysical impossibilityâ to lift yourself up by your bootstraps.
Ocasio-Cortez was criticized after a video of her ripping into a traditional rags-to-riches metaphor surfaced on social media.
âItâs a physical impossibility to lift yourself up by a bootstrap, by your shoelaces?â Ocasio-Cortez said, adding, âItâs physically impossible. The whole thing is a joke.â
Watch the video below:
Conservatives quickly mocked her comments:
On Thursday, Ocasio-Cortez responded, sharing a video for Martin Luther King Jr. talking about the same issue.
âI see that the right is worked up that we pointed out the myth of bootstrapping when 60% of the wealth in this country is *inherited.* But hey, if you think Iâm hopelessly dumb, try listening to MLK talk about âbootstrappingâ the racial wealth gap, too.â
Then she ripped into Republicans, asking if it counts as âbootstrappingâ to receive loans or tax-breaks to help start a business.
âQuestion for the GOP: Does starting a business with a 60 million dollar loan from your dad count as âbootstrapping?â Does getting a $2 trillion dollar corporate handout from the GOP count as âbootstrapping?â Asking for a corrupt president his friends.
Additionally, turning to her own election, she said that it would be ânarcissistic to pretend I âbootstrappedâ it alone.â
Ocasio-Cortez appeared to be referring to a 2017 study that said in 2010, 60% of Americans inherited their wealth, rather than through working and building their own fortune.
The Washington Post noted that the 2017 study found that the percentage was higher than some earlier studies.