If you thought Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the 28-year-old Democratic Socialist running for Congress, was an anomaly, think again.
Meet Sarah Smith, the 30-year-old Democratic Socialist who is working to unseat Democratic Rep. Adam Smith in Washington’s 9th Congressional District.
Smith fashions herself as another Ocasio-Cortez, believing in abolishing ICE, single-payer healthcare, open borders and government-funded college, to name a few issues—and she hopes this platform will help her defeat 11-term incumbent Democratic Rep. Adam Smith and Republican challenger Doug Basler.
Smith sat down with Fox News’s Bill Hemmer on Wednesday to discuss her campaign and platform, which the host thanked her for since invitations to Ocasio-Cortez to appear on the network have gone unanswered.
Hemmer started by asking Smith how much her platform will cost, to which the Democratic Socialist argued that single-payer healthcare will save taxpayers “a lot of money.”
She also discussed Sen. Bernie Sanders’s plan for a speculative Wall Street tax, which would charge two-tenths of a percent on every dollar traded.
“It’s projected that’s going to generate yearly $370 billion dollars and if we earmark that specifically for education - education every year for college only costs about 75 billion,” she said.
Hemmer pointed out that everything she has listed has a (large) price tag, and ultimately it will come from raising taxes.
The Fox News host also asked Smith why she believes “the government can do a better job taking care of people than people can actually do on their own.”
“Because that’s the point of government,” she replied. “It’s to empower people to be able to self determine. The point of government is to be able to make sure people can choose their own fate and choose their own future without having to worry if they can go to the doctor. It's about the government stepping in to take care of the most basic needs of people.”