Socialism’s latest it girl, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, was so impressed by an item she had read in The Nation, she immediately took to twitter to inform her followers. The article was entitled “Exclusive: The Pentagon’s Massive Accounting Fraud Exposed” and the item she had pounced on stated:

In all, at least a mind-boggling $21 trillion of Pentagon financial transactions between 1998 and 2015 could not be traced, documented, or explained, concluded Skidmore.

She rapidly did the math and considered that since “Medicare for All” has a price tag of $32T and the Pentagon has wasted $21T, “66% of Medicare for All could have been funded already.”

$21 TRILLION of Pentagon financial transactions “could not be traced, documented, or explained.” $21T in Pentagon accounting errors. Medicare for All costs ~$32T. That means 66% of Medicare for All could have been funded already by the Pentagon. And that’s before our premiums. https://t.co/soT6GSmDSG — Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@Ocasio2018) December 2, 2018

The Daily Wire’s Ryan Saavedra reached out to Brian Riedl, Senior Fellow at the Manhattan Institute, who said “the Department of Defense has not even spent $21 trillion in the over 70 years that it has existed. The entire Pentagon budget from 1789-2018 has only totaled $18 trillion, which is based on records from the Office of Management and Budget.”

He added that “there is certainly waste to cut from defense and all other federal departments. But Members of Congress should have the basic budgetary familiarity to understand that a $500 billion department (over the period covered) cannot waste $21 trillion.”

Riedl sent out the following tweet to rebut Ocasio-Cortez’:

For those wondering:

In the original study, $21 trillion refers to transfers back-and-forth between accounts. So the same $1 can be counted 1000's of times. It *does not* mean that $21 trillion in total spending was mis-spent. AOC should have realized $21T *spent* is crazy. — Brian Riedl (@Brian_Riedl) December 3, 2018

Bloomberg reporter Steven Dennis also criticized AOC in the following tweet.

Like, $21T is more than the ***entire defense spending*** in that time period. And no, you can't use money we've already spent to pay for a future program because instead we are paying interest on the debt-financed spending we've already spent. Just so much bad math. — Steven Dennis (@StevenTDennis) December 2, 2018

David Boaz, Executive Vice President of The Cato Institute, called AOC’s remarks “strikingly erroneous.”

This strikingly erroneous tweet is now approaching 15,000 retweets and over 40,000 likes. https://t.co/pFmhppHyjS — David Boaz (@David_Boaz) December 3, 2018

And finally, several of her followers offered some advice:

Replying to @Ocasio2018

I like you, but you need to check with a staffer that understands economics before you tweet stuff like this. It undercuts your greater arguments for fairness, equality and progress.

6:41 PM – 2 Dec 2018

Replying to @Ocasio2018

Try to avoid sticker shock remarks and ask more questions of your mentors and predecessors. I’m rooting for you, but you’ve got to act smarter than this.

6:43 PM – 2 Dec 2018

Replying to @Ocasio2018

*sigh*

I really like AOC, but this is what I mean when I say she needs to brush up on policy before making statements like this.

3:45 PM – 2 Dec 2018

Replying to @Ocasio2018

@Ocasio2018 You need to slow down. I’m rooting for you but you are not getting your facts straight

5:56 PM – 2 Dec 2018

Ever since her shocking victory over Joe Crowley in June, she has been sought after by a fawning press. She’s fresh, she’s young, she’s even a socialist! When we hear that an old pair of sneakers she wore during the campaign are going to be featured in an upcoming exhibition at Cornell University’s Costume and Textile Collection, it’s easy to understand how she might develop an overly inflated opinion of herself.

But she was not elected for her intellect. When Ocasio-Cortez tries to sound savvy, her inexperience and her shaky understanding of the issues become obvious. She would do well to listen to her followers and learn to control her impulses.