Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., on Monday announced legislation to prevent Rep. Alexandria Ocasio–Cortez, D-N.Y., from spending taxpayer dollars on funerals.
Ocasio–Cortez and Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., have earmarked $1.2 billion that the Federal Emergency Management Agency may spend on funerals for people who died because of COVID-19, according to Boebert’s press release.
“The American people shouldn’t be forced to shell out another billion dollars of taxpayer money over the next 14 months for AOC’s COVID funerals and this new socialist program should end today,” Boebert said.
The bill—Stop Appropriating for Obsequy Costs Act (Stop AOC Act)—states in fewer than two pages that the federal government cannot fund funerals “if the eligibility for such assistance is derived from a cause of death related to COVID–19.”
Boebert believes that the funeral program could become a permanent feature in the federal government because hundreds of thousands of people die from respiratory illnesses like COVID-19 every year.
The program could cement the socialist dream that the federal government funds and regulates every aspect of life, including death.
“AOC’s new government welfare program is cradle to grave—literally,” Boebert said.
Ocasio–Cortez’s and Schumer’s program would grant $9,000 per funeral, while Boebert noted that the average funeral in America costs between $3,000 and $7,000.
The program also fails to put the American people first.
“There has been little to no auditing of this colossal waste of money, and the program is ripe for abuse and fraud—even allowing illegal immigrant families to receive taxpayer money,” Boebert said.
“The Biden regime’s priority is placating AOC instead of helping Americans; for instance, while the VA backlog takes over 125 days, it only takes a month to get funding from AOC’s pet project,” she added.
Boebert said that the COVID-19 funeral funding would accelerate the COVID-19 wealth transfer from the nation’s interior to rich states on the coasts.
“This is just another blue state bailout, and coastal blue states like Maryland, New York, D.C., and California get almost 70% more money per COVID death on average than rural states like Colorado, Montana, Idaho, and New Mexico,” she said.
