A few of “The View” hosts somehow believe GOP Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis being grateful for the Biden administration helping respond to Hurricane Ian is the equivalent of him acquiescing to socialism.
Co-host Whoopi Goldberg showed a clip of DeSantis on the Fox News program “Hannity” Wednesday night saying that President Joe Biden had called him.
Biden reached out to various mayors in the state Tuesday and finally got around to calling the governor — the principal official responsible for coordinating the hurricane response — Wednesday evening.
Fox News host Sean Hannity asked about the delayed call. DeSantis voiced no complaints.
“When people’s lives and their property are at risk like this, you know we all need to work together regardless of party lines,” he said.
‘The Biden administration has approved our request for a pre-landfall [disaster] declaration and did that very quickly. So we’re thankful for that,” DeSantis added.
“It’s my sense that the administration, you know, wants to help,” the governor said. “I think they realize that this is a really significant storm.”
Fox Weather reported that Ian made landfall Wednesday evening as a category 4 hurricane with 150 mile per hour winds. It is tied for the fourth strongest storm in Florida history.
Goldberg responded to DeSantis’ remarks saying, “Well I mean, he’s the president of the United States. That includes Florida.”
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“You don’t have to agree with him about stuff, but these are his people, your people, our people. That’s what you’re supposed to do,” she noted.
Co-host Joy Behar chimed in: “Isn’t it socialism when the government helps you?”
“That’s what they say. Like Social Security and Medicare and Medicaid and things like that,” Sunny Hostin concurred.
“Yeah, and the fire department’s gotta come. And the police, I mean, socialism!” Behar continued.
Sorry, ladies, the federal government helping the states cope with a natural disaster is not socialism.
Of course, the strict definition of socialism is a system in which the government owns and administers the means of production and distributes the goods.
We’ve certainly, as a nation, gone more in the direction of the government distributing the wealth under the Biden administration, as we did during the Obama administration.
Former President Barack Obama famously said while running for office in 2008, “I think when you spread the wealth around, it’s good for everybody.”
Biden and congressional Democrats certainly have been trying to make that happen with trillions in new inflationary spending and, more recently, student loan “forgiveness.”
Deploying the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Coast Guard and the like to assist Americans after a natural disaster does not a socialist country make, even when there is some government distribution of funds (and other wealth) to those who have not necessarily earned them.
The aid is obviously temporary and meant to help get people back on their feet and get the private economy rolling again, so Americans can ultimately provide for themselves and their loved ones.
So nice try, Joy and Sunny. Whoopi’s right on this one: Biden and the federal government are doing what they’re supposed to do when a natural disaster strikes.
DeSantis is, too, and he’s certainly not relying on socialism to make it happen.
