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Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: “Our health care system was broken before these cuts came…”

Featuring: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Democratic | U.S. House, New York, District 14

Town Hall Meeting in Glens Falls with AOC & Pat Ryan

Published March 9, 2026 | Video Starts at 38:14

And so first and foremost, we've got these immediate fixes, right? We need to extend the ACA subsidies as we've been fighting in Congress. But also we need to recognize that Our health care system was broken before these cuts came into place. And I know that Congressman Ryan and myself, we both believe in guaranteeing health care to every American, in making sure that everyone has the ability to buy into Medicare. (38:14–38:21)

CLAIM

Asserts that the health care system had issues prior to recent budget cuts.

This is an excerpt from a raw transcript. The assertions have not been audited or verified. Tap the video to view the source footage and understand the context.

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Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

“The Hunts Point Produce Market is the largest fruit and produce market in America.”
Town Hall Meeting in Glens Falls with AOC & Pat Ryan | Uploaded March 9, 2026 | 20:20-20:25
“Republicans passed a trillion dollars in health care cuts across the country.”
Town Hall Meeting in Glens Falls with AOC & Pat Ryan | Uploaded March 9, 2026 | 36:00-36:09
“You have these deals with the Ellisons, who now are taking over TikTok.”
Town Hall Meeting in Glens Falls with AOC & Pat Ryan | Uploaded March 9, 2026 | 48:41-48:48
“A huge, massive proportion of federal workers are United States veterans.”
Town Hall Meeting in Glens Falls with AOC & Pat Ryan | Uploaded March 9, 2026 | 1:07:28-1:07:33
“The Pentagon has not yet passed a single audit.”
Town Hall Meeting in Glens Falls with AOC & Pat Ryan | Uploaded March 9, 2026 | 1:08:33-1:08:38
“They will often look at second grade test scores to determine how many prison beds you're going to need and prepare in 10 to 15 years.”
Town Hall Meeting in Glens Falls with AOC & Pat Ryan | Uploaded March 9, 2026 | 1:15:46-1:16:00
“Glyphosate, AKA Roundup, the source of huge amounts of lawsuits because it has been identified as a tremendous cause of cancer across the…”
Town Hall Meeting in Glens Falls with AOC & Pat Ryan | Uploaded March 9, 2026 | 1:35:32-1:35:50
“Our health care is being taken away from us.”
Town Hall Meeting in Glens Falls with AOC & Pat Ryan | Uploaded March 9, 2026 | 23:32-23:35
“Our wages are not growing.”
Town Hall Meeting in Glens Falls with AOC & Pat Ryan | Uploaded March 9, 2026 | 23:35-23:38
“Our rents and mortgages are spiking.”
Town Hall Meeting in Glens Falls with AOC & Pat Ryan | Uploaded March 9, 2026 | 23:37-23:41
“For the first time in our country's history, you young people have a worse quality, projected quality of life than the generation above…”
Town Hall Meeting in Glens Falls with AOC & Pat Ryan | Uploaded March 9, 2026 | 23:48-23:59
“The Energy and Commerce Committee has jurisdiction over all health care in the United States.”
Town Hall Meeting in Glens Falls with AOC & Pat Ryan | Uploaded March 9, 2026 | 27:29-27:38
“This is killing all of us and we have to talk about it.”
Town Hall Meeting in Glens Falls with AOC & Pat Ryan | Uploaded March 9, 2026 | 28:28-28:35
“We're going to show that a politics of kindness and care and compassion and ferocity in fighting for what's right is at and can win us…”
Town Hall Meeting in Glens Falls with AOC & Pat Ryan | Uploaded March 9, 2026 | 29:24-29:39
“There is no form of health care that is not touched or affected by these cuts.”
Town Hall Meeting in Glens Falls with AOC & Pat Ryan | Uploaded March 9, 2026 | 36:10-36:18
“If you have private insurance, your premiums are going up.”
Town Hall Meeting in Glens Falls with AOC & Pat Ryan | Uploaded March 9, 2026 | 37:24-37:28
“The cost of insuring your employees has skyrocketed.”
Town Hall Meeting in Glens Falls with AOC & Pat Ryan | Uploaded March 9, 2026 | 37:33-37:38
“Tons of people who qualify for Medicaid are getting kicked off.”
Town Hall Meeting in Glens Falls with AOC & Pat Ryan | Uploaded March 9, 2026 | 37:39-37:45
“If you're on Medicare, you're also being affected by this, especially with cuts to long term care.”
Town Hall Meeting in Glens Falls with AOC & Pat Ryan | Uploaded March 9, 2026 | 37:50-37:57
“We need to extend the ACA subsidies.”
Town Hall Meeting in Glens Falls with AOC & Pat Ryan | Uploaded March 9, 2026 | 38:04-38:08
“We need to break up the monopolies that are happening in our health care insurance.”
Town Hall Meeting in Glens Falls with AOC & Pat Ryan | Uploaded March 9, 2026 | 39:26-39:32
“Politicians have to stop taking [corporate] money.”
Town Hall Meeting in Glens Falls with AOC & Pat Ryan | Uploaded March 9, 2026 | 39:47-39:50
“The Fairness Doctrine is absolutely such an important key in linchpin because once that kind of came out, we started this whole slide lied…”
Town Hall Meeting in Glens Falls with AOC & Pat Ryan | Uploaded March 9, 2026 | 47:48-48:07
“The very scary concentration of power and media outlets that is happening.”
Town Hall Meeting in Glens Falls with AOC & Pat Ryan | Uploaded March 9, 2026 | 48:13-48:21
“You can literally name the billionaire that owns the outlet, that Jeff Bezos owns, the Washington Post.”
Town Hall Meeting in Glens Falls with AOC & Pat Ryan | Uploaded March 9, 2026 | 48:31-48:41
“You have this merger deal now with Paramount, CNN.”
Town Hall Meeting in Glens Falls with AOC & Pat Ryan | Uploaded March 9, 2026 | 48:52-48:56
“CBS has been taken over by a charlatan.”
Town Hall Meeting in Glens Falls with AOC & Pat Ryan | Uploaded March 9, 2026 | 49:01-49:06
“The gutting of local journalism is the seed for a lot of this [media monopolies].”
Town Hall Meeting in Glens Falls with AOC & Pat Ryan | Uploaded March 9, 2026 | 49:23-49:33
“We have to make sure that we are protecting from all of these mergers.”
Town Hall Meeting in Glens Falls with AOC & Pat Ryan | Uploaded March 9, 2026 | 49:42-49:51
“There are media monopolies as well [as in health care].”
Town Hall Meeting in Glens Falls with AOC & Pat Ryan | Uploaded March 9, 2026 | 49:59-50:04
“This is the first generation that is going to be worse off than their parents.”
Town Hall Meeting in Glens Falls with AOC & Pat Ryan | Uploaded March 9, 2026 | 56:25-56:32
“It is a crime that you essentially have to take on houses worth of debt just to get a college or vocational education.”
Town Hall Meeting in Glens Falls with AOC & Pat Ryan | Uploaded March 9, 2026 | 58:55-59:06
“You graduate into pay that is way worse, adjusted for inflation, than our parents or grandparents ever had.”
Town Hall Meeting in Glens Falls with AOC & Pat Ryan | Uploaded March 9, 2026 | 59:10-59:19
“We need to address our housing crisis, our education crisis, our job crisis.”
Town Hall Meeting in Glens Falls with AOC & Pat Ryan | Uploaded March 9, 2026 | 59:32-59:51
“The only way that we're going to achieve things like universal health care... is because we had the audacity to believe in our collective…”
Town Hall Meeting in Glens Falls with AOC & Pat Ryan | Uploaded March 9, 2026 | 59:53-1:00:09
“The Bronx had some of the highest high school dropout rates in all of New York City, if not the state.”
Town Hall Meeting in Glens Falls with AOC & Pat Ryan | Uploaded March 9, 2026 | 1:17:09-1:17:18
“I'm from a community that has some of the highest childhood asthma rates in the country.”
Town Hall Meeting in Glens Falls with AOC & Pat Ryan | Uploaded March 9, 2026 | 1:19:58-1:20:06
“Air pollution in a neighborhood is directly correlated to school outcomes.”
Town Hall Meeting in Glens Falls with AOC & Pat Ryan | Uploaded March 9, 2026 | 1:20:10-1:20:17
“Congress gave explicit, explicit instruction to the Department of Justice on what needs to be made public [regarding the Epstein files].”
Town Hall Meeting in Glens Falls with AOC & Pat Ryan | Uploaded March 9, 2026 | 1:24:51-1:25:00
“We have actually seen victims be exposed and predators be protected [in the Epstein case].”
Town Hall Meeting in Glens Falls with AOC & Pat Ryan | Uploaded March 9, 2026 | 1:25:01-1:25:08
“We are seeing huge, huge dark money being spent [in politics].”
Town Hall Meeting in Glens Falls with AOC & Pat Ryan | Uploaded March 9, 2026 | 1:25:32-1:25:52
“Misinformation is paid for and bankrolled by some of the biggest and deep-pocketed donors in politics.”
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“I'm a huge fan of legislation supporting the overturning of Citizens United.”
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“I actually helped lead one of the first investigations into PFAS dumping in communities across the country.”
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“We can pass legislation to hold these polluters accountable, and we can also investigate, use the power of Congress to investigate a lot of…”
Town Hall Meeting in Glens Falls with AOC & Pat Ryan | Uploaded March 9, 2026 | 1:36:46-1:36:59
“In Washington, D.C. once you get to Washington, right, you get swarmed by all of these consultants and pundits and people who think that…”
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“There's so many people from that world that would tell someone like Pat saying, listen, you're from a purple district. You shouldn't be seen…”
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