Would AOC's National Rent Control Solve the Housing Crisis, or Make It Even Worse?

A comprehensive anti-poverty bill proposed by New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez would authorize new protections for tenants, children, immigrants, and other categories of Americans who are increasingly vulnerable to the high costs of inequality. This legislation—really a suite of bills—would expand federal benefits to undocumented immigrants and people with past criminal convictions, introduce a workspace score for certifying federal contractors, and add nuance to federal poverty guidelines.

With her new legislative package, Ocasio-Cortez aims to elevate poverty as an agenda item for liberals, the way she has moved the needle on the issues of healthcare and climate change by promoting Medicare for All and the Green New Deal. Her bill, ”A Just Society,” would position anti-poverty policy as an agenda item for the new left, and possibly another litmus test, too.