AOC mocks Boebert’s ‘good conservative values’ after GOP lawmaker rejects government benefits in CPAC speech

Colorado Republican attacks vaccine campaign despite her districts’s dismal inoculation rate

US Representative Lauren Boebert told a crowd at the nation’s largest Republican conference that “we’re here” to reject government benefits and federal vaccination efforts during the coronavirus pandemic.

“We’re here to tell government we don’t want your benefits. We don’t want your welfare,” she said at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Dallas, Texas on 10 July. “Don’t come knocking on my door with your Fauci ouchie. You leave us the hell alone.”

Her remarks – taking aim at Dr Anthony Fauci, a frequent target for the right – followed a Twitter post in which she compared vaccination outreach to Nazism and amplified the false claim that Covid-19 vaccines are “experimental” after the White House announced wider campaigns to directly provide information about how to get vaccinated.

“Biden has deployed his Needle Nazis to Mesa County,” she said on Twitter on 8 July.

In that county in Ms Boebert’s congressional district, only 41 per cent of residents aged 12 and older have received at least one dose of three available Covid-19 vaccines, according to the county’s health department.

Her CPAC remarks were widely condemned – invoking the so-called “third rail” of American politics by attacking federal benefits critical to millions of Americans.

“Tell ‘em loud and proud girl!” said Democratic US Rep Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who mocked the congresswoman on Twitter by sharing a clip of her CPAC remarks.

“GOP will strip your unemployment protections and dismantle any semblance of a public safety net we have left! Then make working people pay way more for everything on low wages while Wall St gets a meal ticket!” the New York lawmaker said. “Good ol conservative values baby!”

Earlier this year, Congress passed Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, which extended federal unemployment benefits through 6 September.

Mesa County businesses also received more than 4,500 loans through Paycheck Protection Program, according to government data.

New claims from Colorado residents applying for federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance have nearly doubled since late May, and tripled since 1 May, according to the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment.

At least 22 states have announced they will be prematurely cutting off federal benefits in their states, with four more states pulling out of the programme by the end of July. Meanwhile, several GOP lawmakers have promoted millions of dollars to their districts after the law’s passage, despite voting against it.

On 9 July, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said that “the failure to provide accurate public health information, including the efficacy of vaccines and the accessibility of them to people across the country … is literally killing people.”