AOC slams Manchin's urge to cut $3.5 trillion Democratic social welfare bill and delay its passage: 'Bipartisan corruption is killing people'

• Rep. Ocasio-Cortez said, "Fossil fuel corps & dark money is destroying our democracy, country, & planet."
• The tweets came in response to Manchin's op-ed on The Wall Street Journal suggesting a pause on the $3.5 trillion bill.
• The bill would allocate spending towards health care, climate change, child and elder care, education, and more.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York slammed Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia after he came out against the price tag of a $3.5 trillion social spending bill and urged Democrats to slow down its passage.

The congresswoman tweeted that "'bipartisan corruption" and "fossil fuel bills" are "killing people." On Wednesday night the historic flooding in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast from the remnants of Hurricane Ida killed people in Ocasio-Cortez's district in New York.

The "fossil fuel" bill she is referring to appears to be the $1 trillion infrastructure bill focused on roads, bridges, and broadband that cleared the Senate in July with the backing of every Democratic senator and some Senate Republicans like Mitch McConnell.

"It's killing people. Our people. At least 12 last night. Sick of this 'bipartisan' corruption that masquerades as clear-eyed moderation," she wrote in a Thursday tweet.

-Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) September 2, 2021

According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency, "fossil fuel combustion and industrial processes contributing about 78% of the total greenhouse gas emissions increase from 1970 to 2011."

Ocasio-Cortez is also the author of the Green New Deal, a congressional proposal to tackle climate change.

The congresswoman's comments came after Manchin published an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal on Thursday calling for a "strategic pause" on the party-line spending plan. He also urged reducing its hefty price tag. Manchin's proposed "pause" threatens to derail swaths of President Joe Biden's economic plans.

"I, for one, won't support a $3.5 trillion bill, or anywhere near that level of additional spending, without greater clarity about why Congress chooses to ignore the serious effects inflation and debt have on existing government programs," Manchin wrote in the op-ed.

The party-line bill faces an uncertain path ahead in Congress, given Democrats can only afford three defections in the House and none in the 50-50 Senate. The package would not only be spent on child care, elder care, family leave, and education - but it would also allocate spending towards health care and climate change, which have become increasingly relevant as death tolls continue to rise due to natural disasters across the country.

"All day our community has been pulling bodies out of homes from the flood. Entire families. And we're supposed to entertain lobbyist talking points about why we should abandon people & do nothing? No," Ocasio-Cortez tweeted.

WABC, a local New York news outlet, reports that at least 13 people died as a result of Ida, the once-Category-4 hurricane that pummeled down parts of southeastern Louisiana, on Wednesday night.

Manchin's office did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.