CONGRESSWOMAN OCASIO-CORTEZ TELLS "60 MINUTES" 70 PERCENT TAX RATES ON THE VERY RICH WOULD HELP PAY FOR "GREEN NEW DEAL" TO COMBAT CLIMATE CHANGE

First Excerpt Appears on "CBS This Morning"

The youngest woman ever elected to the U.S. Congress, Rep. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), tells Anderson Cooper that high tax rates on the very rich would help finance an ambitious plan to combat climate change known as the "Green New Deal." The interview will be broadcast on 60 MINUTES Sunday, Jan. 6 (7:00-8:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network.

In a wide-ranging discussion, the 29-year-old from the Bronx also talks about her life, her political views, the reasons why she attended a protest in House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office shortly after being elected, and her thoughts about President Trump.

Ocasio-Cortez was sworn into the House of Representatives yesterday as the 116th Congress began its work in Washington, D.C. During the Democratic primary in June, she unseated the fourth-highest-ranking Democrat in the House of Representatives. Ocasio-Cortez is a Democratic Socialist. She believes in universal health care, tuition-free public college, and huge government outlays to combat global warming.

An excerpt from the 60 MINUTES interview was broadcast on CBS THIS MORNING. Below is the transcript of that exchange. Please credit 60 MINUTES:

ANDERSON COOPER: You're talking about zero carbon emissions - no use of fossil fuels within 12 years.

ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ: That is the goal. It's ambitious. And...

ANDERSON COOPER: How is that possible? Are you talking about everybody having to drive an electric car?

ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ: It's going to require a lot of rapid change that we don't even conceive as possible right now. What is the problem with trying to push our technological capacities to the furthest extent possible?

ANDERSON COOPER: This would require, though, raising taxes.

ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ: There's an element where - yeah. There - people are going to have to start paying their fair share in taxes.

ANDERSON COOPER: Do you have a specific on the tax rate?

ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ: You know, it - you look at our tax rates back in the '60s and when you have a progressive tax rate system, your tax rate, you know, let's say, from zero to $75,000 may be 10 percent or 15 percent, et cetera. But once you get to, like, the tippy tops - on your 10 millionth dollar - sometimes you see tax rates as high as 60 or 70 percent. That doesn't mean all $10 million are taxed at an extremely high rate, but it means that as you climb up this ladder, you should be contributing more.

ANDERSON COOPER: What you are talking about, just big picture, is a radical agenda - compared to the way politics is done right now.

ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ: Well I think that it only has ever been radicals that have changed this country. Abraham Lincoln made the radical decision to sign the Emancipation Proclamation. Franklin Delano Roosevelt made the radical decision to embark on establishing programs like Social Security. That is radical.

ANDERSON COOPER: Do you call yourself a radical?

ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ: Yeah. You know, if that's what radical means, call me a radical.

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