US congresswoman says Ivanka Trump never worked for a living

Freshman US congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has rebuked President Donald Trump’s oldest daughter and White House adviser for speaking about the Green New Deal, which guarantees a job for all Americans, saying Ivanka Trump does not understand what it means to work for minimum wage.

Ocasio-Cortez, a Democratic member of the US House of Representatives from New York, is one of the sponsors of the Green New Deal resolution.

The resolution, a set of proposed economic stimulus programs, seeks to eliminate greenhouse gas pollution in the United States over the next decade while also addressing inequality with a job guarantee program “to assure a living wage job to every person who wants one.”

Ivanka Trump became involved in the Green New Deal debate on Monday during an interview with Fox News.

“I don’t think most Americans, in their heart, want to be given something. I’ve spent a lot of time traveling around this country over the last four years. People want to work for what they get,” Trump responded to a question about the Green New Deal. “So, I think that this idea of a guaranteed minimum is not something most people want. They want the ability to be able to secure a job. They want the ability to live in a country where’s there’s the potential for upward mobility.”

Ocasio-Cortez responded to Trump's remarks in a tweet on Tuesday.

“Imagine attacking a jobs guarantee by saying ‘people prefer to earn money’,” she wrote.

"As a person who actually worked for tips & hourly wages in my life, instead of having to learn about it 2nd-hand, I can tell you that most people want to be paid enough to live," Cortez said.

"A living wage isn’t a gift, it’s a right. Workers are often paid far less than the value they create."

Ocasio-Cortez, the youngest woman ever elected to Congress and a self-described Democratic socialist, has rapidly become the face of the Democratic Party’s progressive wing.

Facing a wave of criticism following the Fox News interview, Trump backpedaled on Tuesday, tweeting “I support a minimum wage. I do not however believe in a minimum guarantee for people unwilling to work which was the question asked of me.”

That did not appear to be the question asked of her nor what she originally said. In the Fox News video, Steve Hilton asked Trump: “You’ve got people who will see that offer from the Democrats, from the progressive Democrats, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: ‘Here’s the Green New Deal, here’s the guarantee of a job,’ and think, ‘Yeah, that’s what I want, it’s that simple.’ What do you say to those people?”

One of the goals of the Green New Deal resolution is "guaranteeing a job with a family-sustaining wage, adequate family and medical leave, paid vacations, and retirement security to all people of the United States."

Conservatives have attacked the proposal as unaffordable and unworkable.

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