Freshman Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., who regularly lambastes Republicans over tax cuts and helped scuttle a plan by Amazon to locate in New York City because she opposed tax breaks the company might receive, costing the city an estimated 25,000 jobs, sought a tax break for herself in 2012 so she could launch her own company.

Ocasio-Cortez, who graduated from Boston University in 2011, today calls herself a "democratic socialist." But in 2012, she was a businesswoman seeking tax benefits for her startup, Brook Avenue Press, which published books and curricula for children in the Bronx.

"Plenty of entrepreneurs have started their businesses on a shoestring and any break they receive means more flexibility for further growth,” Ocasio-Cortez said in 2012 in a news release.

"A tax break could mean part-time work for someone else or keeping a business' doors open long enough to turn a profit. Young entrepreneurs are playing a special role in developing promising, creative enterprises for our future, and a small break can open up their resources for hiring, creating a new product, or reinvesting in the local economy," Ocasio-Cortez added.





Ocasio-Cortez was one of several Bronx-based entrepreneurs and start-up advocates quoted in the release, put out by Bronx Borough President Rubén Díaz Jr. and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., in support for the proposed Small Business Start-up Support Act. The bill would have increased deductions for start-up costs from $5,000 to $10,000.

Tax experts were surprised to hear Ocasio-Cortez supported tax breaks to fuel economic growth while considering herself a democratic socialist.

Steve Horwitz, a distinguished professor of free enterprise at Ball State University and senior affiliated scholar at the Mercatus Center, said Ocasio-Cortez’s instincts were right at the time to support tax breaks but wrong to only want them for a special class of small businesses.

“Why should anyone be exempt from taxation if part of our obligation to others is to pay taxes and provide for the sort of services that democratic socialists think that various levels of government should provide?” said Horwitz about the small business tax break. “This is the kind of thing Amazon was asking for in Long Island.”

Horwitz added that government should not be in the business of picking winners and losers, whether it is giving Amazon special breaks or exempting small businesses from taxes larger business do not have to pay.

Ocasio-Cortez was a fierce critic of the planned Amazon headquarters in New York which would have received $1.2 billion in tax benefits if it had gone through with its original plans to put its headquarters in New York.

“Amazon is a billion-dollar company. The idea that it will receive hundreds of millions of dollars in tax breaks at a time when our subway is crumbling and our communities need MORE investment, not less, is extremely concerning to residents here,” she said last fall after the move was announced.



Amazon is a billion-dollar company. The idea that it will receive hundreds of millions of dollars in tax breaks at a time when our subway is crumbling and our communities need MORE investment, not less, is extremely concerning to residents here. — Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) November 13, 2018



When Amazon announced it was pulling its headquarter plans in New York City, Ocasio-Cortez cheered the move saying that “corporate greed” and “worker exploitation” had been defeated.

[ Related: NYC congresswoman slams Amazon pullout decision, in contrast to AOC's cheers]



Anything is possible: today was the day a group of dedicated, everyday New Yorkers & their neighbors defeated Amazon’s corporate greed, its worker exploitation, and the power of the richest man in the world. https://t.co/nyvm5vtH9k — Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) February 14, 2019



Chris Edwards, the director of tax policy studies at the Cato Institute, was less critical of the policy proposal, which he said moved in a “good pro-market direction,” but was surprised that Ocasio-Cortez, an avowed democratic socialist, would support it.

“It’s a very Republican proposal because it moves the way the GOP has long advocated, which is allowing more 'expensing' or immediate write-offs of business investment,” Edwards told the Washington Examiner.

Edwards pointed out the same tax deduction proposal was in the Republicans' second tax reform bill.

Ocasio-Cortez has in the past referred to Republican tax proposals as a “tax scam.”



Cost of the GOP Tax Scam for the rich:💰~$1.8-2.3 Trillion



Cost of forgiving all student loans in America:💰~$1.5 Trillion



Clearly where there’s a will, there’s a way.



When people say that there isn’t “enough” to do these things, what they mean is they don’t *want* to do them. https://t.co/RvcYk8kbEy — Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) March 13, 2019



She has also been critical of Republicans' latest tax plan, which includes the tax deduction proposal she supported back in 2012 when her company would have benefited from it.

“The House GOP wants to add *another* $2.4 trillion in tax cuts after already cutting $2 trillion in taxes on corporations & the very rich last December. You ever notice how no one asks the GOP how *they’re* going to pay for it?” Ocasio-Cortez said in a tweet last fall.



The House GOP wants to add *another* $2.4 trillion in tax cuts after already cutting $2 trillion in taxes on corporations & the very rich last December.



You ever notice how no one asks the GOP how *they’re* going to pay for it? https://t.co/yfK5dzi3es — Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) September 11, 2018



Ocasio-Cortez’s office did not respond to a request for comment.