Congresswoman-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez suggested that “Medicare for all" costs be covered by money allocated to the Department of Defense.

The New York Democrat over the weekend referenced a Nation magazine report about problems with a Pentagon audit due to bookkeeping deficiencies, irregularities, and errors.

“In all, at least a mind-boggling $21 trillion of Pentagon financial transactions between 1998 and 2015 could not be traced, documented, or explained,” the progressive publication reported.

“$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,” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted, citing the Nation article.

[Opinion: No, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, 'Medicare for all' cannot be mostly financed by eliminating Pentagon fraud]



$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



Ocasio-Cortez, a socialist, is an advocate for universal healthcare. Long a goal on the Left, practical proposals about it frequently run into obstacles about how it would be paid for.

The libertarian-leaning Koch brothers estimate that over the first ten years, a Medicare for All system would cost the federal government $32 trillion.

Even if Ocasio-Cortez’s theorized proposal came to fruition, the $21 trillion Pentagon money, which has not yet been accounted for, was accumulated over a 17-year period, and would cover less than 66 percent of the first ten years of a universal healthcare system.