AOC caught exploiting coronavirus panic with disinformation to push socialist agenda on student loans

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) was caught spreading misinformation amid the coronavirus to seemingly push her far-left agenda on student loans.

After the stock market crashed to its worst fall since 1987 on Thursday, the Federal Reserve announced it would inject $1.5 trillion in capital into the stock market in an effort to offset coronavirus-related economic disruptions.

In response, Ocasio-Cortez wrote on Twitter, "FYI, the amount that the Fed just injected almost covers all student loan debt in the US. There is absolutely NO excuse for not pausing student debt collections, planning for mortgage &rent relief, etc. We need to care for working people as much as we care for the stock market."

Brad Polumbo at the Washington Examiner explained why Ocasio-Cortez's response amounts to "disinformation."

This is ignorance to the point of disinformation, frankly.

What Ocasio-Cortez is suggesting is that the Federal Reserve is somehow spending $1.5 trillion in government funds and that similar levels of spending could be used to cancel all student debt in the United States. But this is false, and completely distorts the action the central bank is taking.

Brookings Institution fellow and New York Times writer Justin Wolfers (an economist whose credentials don't exactly scream right-wing hack) called this type of comparison "horses**t," pointing out that "the Fed's short term loans cost us nothing when they're all repaid the next day."

Indeed, as National Review reported, the Fed did not cut a check to the banks — as Ocasio-Cortez implied — but rather engaged in "short-term transactions with banks to ensure financial stability."

Ocasio-Cortez — who holds an economics and international relations degree from Boston University — advocates canceling all student loan debt.