Washington (CNN) Rep. Alexandria-Ocasio Cortez claimed on Monday that it was "literally easier" for her to be elected to Congress than pay off her student loans.

.@AOC on bill to eliminate all student debt: "It was literally easier for me to become the youngest woman in American history elected to Congress than it is to pay off my student loan debt." https://t.co/l2DVQXrQic pic.twitter.com/fhxvtNtvhg — Evan McMurry (@evanmcmurry) June 24, 2019

"It was literally easier for me to become the youngest woman in American history elected to Congress than it is for me to pay off my student loan debt," she said at an event on Capitol Hill where Sen. Bernie Sanders presented his plan to cancel $1.6 trillion of student loan debt.

Ocasio-Cortez's historic election in the 2018 midterms unseated longtime incumbent Joe Crowley, a high-ranking Democrat in the House at the time. However, Ocasio-Cortez argued it would not be appropriate to hold those with student loan debt to the standard of unseating an incumbent Congressman for a chance to pay off their loan debt.

"In order for me to get a chance to have healthcare... to pay off my student loans, I had to do something that was nearly impossible," Ocasio-Cortez said. "And I don't think that that is the bar through which a person should be able to access education, healthcare, and a bevy of other things that should be considered human rights."

The New York Democrat made these remarks at a press conference alongside Sanders, Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar and Washington Rep. Pramila Jayapal, co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, for the launch of Sanders' proposal for his student debt bill. The legislation would cancel $1.6 trillion of student loan undergraduate and graduate debt for approximately 45 million people.

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