Fox News’ Hasselbeck Calls Air Conditioning ‘The Ugly Side’ Of Welfare

[Purveyor]

Fox News host Elisabeth Hasselbeck on Thursday suggested that welfare recipients who had air conditioning and cell phones were part of the “ugly side of entitlements.”

During Thursday’s Fox & Friends, Hasselbeck plugged a report that libertarian Fox Business host John Stossel is running this week that he claims will show how welfare creates a culture of dependency.

“Do these folks really need to be on welfare,” she asked, followed by video of Stossel interview apparent welfare recipients on the street.

“Yeah, I have a TV,” one woman says.

“Yeah, I have a television,” a man tells Stossel.

MORE with video of segment...

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/10/10/fox-news-hasselbeck-calls-air-conditioning-the-ugly-side-of-welfare/

[wilt the stilt]

1. no debtor prisons? n/t

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

2. She should know all about air conditioning

being an airhead

[Purveyor]

3. LOL! "Oh no you didn't..." eom

[appleannie1]

4. No, hers is hot air. The only thing cold is the spot where her heart should be.

[Worried senior]

5. Wonder if she would

ever stop to think that maybe air conditioning is critical to someone that has a medical condition.

She married well so she is surely in a position to give advice. Sure not making it on her own.

[Erose999]

6. Down here in the south the heat can be literally lethal. We've been having tripple digit highs for

the hottest couple weeks of the summer for the past decade. Sometimes seniors and the disabled die in their own homes from heat strokes.

[alarimer]

75. And most housing (apartments for example) are unlivable without a/c

I don't mean just unpleasant. I mean that air does not otherwise circulate. I've lived in places where all the windows were all on one side of the apartment. How are you supposed to get a breeze through there?

Modern housing is designed for climate control. It's just a fact. No dog-trot cabins or large front porches anymore.

[jsr]

7. Hasselbeck: Let them die in a heat wave, collect, and toss

Chicago, 1995

[madrchsod]

71. that was a really bad year.....

[a kennedy]

8. speaking of air heads......the moment she moved to faux they made her hair blonder

and whitened her teeth. and now she looks exactly like a lot of all the other faux noise bimbos. edit to add info. and sorry it sounds kinda wordy.

[Jamaal510]

86. I wonder if FOX's president

has some type of blonde fetish going on over there.
[IMG][/IMG]

[yuiyoshida]

95. WOW ...NO WONDER Michelle Malkin

IS ALWAYS PISSED OFF!!

[Southside]

100. Very funny, haha

That picture represents her heart as well.

Such a good looking woman, but always angry, but she is good looking. If she never said "makers vs takers" I could forgive everything else. What happened to makers vs takers. They dropped that?

[spanone]

9. faux, the ugly side of 'news' reporting

[Rex]

10. And here we see the ugly side of Hasselbeck.

What a clueless moran.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

11. And shoes! How dare they have shoes!

Why do they need shoes? They've already got feet. Isn't that enough?

Next, you'll tell me they have indoor plumbing as well.

[Beaverhausen]

12. "Having" something doesn't mean the person bought it new

Both of my TVs were gifts. As was our refrigerator.

[Hong Kong Cavalier]

13. Ladies and gentlemen:

A human without a soul. Let's hear it for Elisabeth Hasslebeck!

[joeybee12]

14. Are there no prisons? Are there no workhouses?

I just made that up!

[anneboleyn]

107. Yes, bring back the Dickensian conditions for the EVIL POOR!

Sarcasm, in case there is any doubt.

Says the whacko, uncool and unwatched Stossel -- the Ayn Randian arse.

[yuiyoshida]

15. I would love to see Hasselbeck live in Phoenix ARIZONA

OR BLYTHE CALIFORNIA for a WEEK without AC.... Than She can CORRECT her statements.

[Aerows]

25. At least you can use sump pumps

and evaporative cooling when it hits 100. Here, we have 80%+ humidity on top of it being in the high 90's.

[yuiyoshida]

30. I remember a summer in Scottsdale Arizona when

the thermometer hit 115. I remember thinking, there really is not much difference between 115 and 100. Both are equally hot. That's why I love the West, when you sweat the liquid evaporates...and I think dry heat is preferable to humidity. Just getting off the Airplane in Albany, New York during the summer, (and it was only 75 degrees) the Humidity hits you like a brick. The only place to be is under a water sprinkler, or to have one of those spray bottles they use for misting plants.

No, thanks, I will keep myself on the West Coast... At least where I live, we have the Ocean Breezes...

[Aerows]

34. 75 is a high temperature?

Let me know when you go through Katrina, no electricity, no water and it's hitting high 90's and 85% humidity. I nearly cried in gratitude to find a pool of water to wash my hair in, jump in stark naked and didn't even give a crap! (I went up in the country to help my friend take care of her horses and check on them).

[yuiyoshida]

36. no 75 is not a high temperature ...you missed the point..

It was only 75, but the Humidity was horrible. As I said, like being hit in the face by a brick. As for going though Disasters, how about the 1989 San Francisco Earthquake? I went though that... three or four days without electricity and no water. The Street lights were not even on. People were dying over on the I-80 Interchange because of the collapsed Freeway.. and there were fires in the Marina, because gas lines had broken. Not exactly a fun day, for most residents of the BAY Area...

[Aerows]

37. Take high 90's and

everything destroyed. That's where we were. I went through that for ... 3 1/2 weeks no water and 5 weeks no electricity. So lecturing me on that front is unproductive.

[yuiyoshida]

39. Yeah we only had this...

[Aerows]

42. Did you stick around for disaster cleanup? n/t

[yuiyoshida]

44. I was 15 years old at the time...

What was I going to do?

[Aerows]

47. So no.

Bless your heart. I hope you keep your innocence about how hard it is to immediately leave a disaster.

Because I wouldn't want anyone to go through what we did rebuilding. You were 15, and you think you have an ability to judge the world based upon an experience where people not only lived it, but endured the aftermath and actually FIXED the problems.

[yuiyoshida]

53. Again ... I was 15 years old at the time...

Do you really expect kids and Teenagers out there cleaning up tons of debris? And, we did live though that earthquake, our foundation to our house was shot... You don't think a 7.1 earthquake can terrify a kid of 15? I never heard myself scream so loud in my entire life.
My Dad was fortunate enough to have house insurance, and could hire a contractor to fix up our house...but in the end, it was futile and we had to move. The place just was not safe...and oh, by the way...Earthquakes don't just happen...and stop. There are these things called Aftershocks...and to a kid whose nerves were already frayed... the shaking continued not for days but for the entire month after. I had a hell of time sleeping in my bed, while feeling it rock back and forth. I spent many a nights sleeping with my mom because I was traumatized.

[Aerows]

58. I hope that's the worst thing you ever see

Don't judge those that have seen worse and act as though they are ... what were your words?

[yuiyoshida]

67. Living though that earthquake was no

picnic... AND ANYONE ..who lived in the BAY AREA back than could tell you that. MOST people in the United States thought it was a shame that the World Series had to be stopped because of the Earthquake.. infact, most people had no idea how extensive that quake was, Not Just San Francisco ...the entire Bay Area. I remember hearing about a mall that collapsed in some town south of the city. There were houses south of the city that fell over.. and little fires here and there. The city was in a terrible mess.. and I am still here in the BAY AREA...where, as they say, the BIG ONE could hit at any time. I will not leave. I love the Bay Area...

Incidentally, I was going to college in Santa Barbara around the time of the LOS ANGELES earthquake...and yes, we felt that clear up there. One of my best friends lives in the San Fernando Valley and her entire swimming pool emptied out of water...from that shaker, flooding parts of her house...and the movement of the earth shattered her bathroom fixtures.

I was also down near where they had the giant fires in Los Angeles county some years back. Its pretty terrifying looking up and seeing the LA Hills in flames.





But hey, I love this State... I will never leave it. Its my home.

[melody]

101. Girls, girls, you're both pretty

Honestly, you're debating who suffered more? Both situations sound equally awful.

[yuiyoshida]

102. yup...

Thanks for the reply

[REP]

51. After the Loma Prieta earthquake, we didn't have water for six months here

You can see the epicenter of the quake from my deck. My house was fine aside from no water.

[Aerows]

54. Were people you know pulling dead bodies

out of the wreckage and rebuilding?

Were body parts washing up in the places where you were trying to work?

That's a very big difference in trying to get an entire town working again.

[REP]

62. Yes.

It's really not a contest. There is no "good" disaster.

The Hyatt Disaster was only one building, but if you were there and survived, being knee-deep in blood and body parts made it seem much bigger. And no, I only knew people who died in it.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyatt_Regency_walkway_collapse

[Aerows]

88. I'm sorry for freaking out

that was a very hard time in my life. I was given the choice, stay or leave. I made the choice to stay. I probably shouldn't have, but I stayed anyway. We rebuilt.

[Aerows]

41. Let me clear this up for you

The LAST person in the US that you ever need to lecture on what it is like to go through a natural disaster that kills people, harms many, and causes suffering is a person that went through Hurricane Katrina, and I'm sure your situation was bad, and I'm not here to compare bad situations, but anyone that every insinuates that it was delightful down here, or that "we had a good outcome" (I'm white and did the clean up and stayed) and it was anywhere near a walk in the park can ... well, I'm trying to be polite.

[yuiyoshida]

45. Point is NO disaster is GOOD

And you should never assume another person had it better or worse than you.

[Aerows]

48. You left town

I stayed and rebuilt. I think that gives me a right to judge when people get arrogant over the fact that they endured certain issues in their lives, but stayed to fix them, yet you only saw them and left.

I endured them. And did the right thing and rebuilt.

[yuiyoshida]

55. excuse me?

I do not recall saying I left town. We moved a few blocks away...that is until recently when my parents sold our most recent house. I have my own apartment now and I am still in the Bay Area.

[Aerows]

61. You had no part in the clean up.

I have no doubts you still live there, so do I, I still live here, but at least I pulled a couple of body parts out of the water that was dangerously high and attempted to reunite them with their (dead) person for buriel as is proper.

Was it that bad for you, did you do those things? I get so pissed off that in an article about A/C someone brings it up like nobody in the world deserves it. You will never know what we went through in that month, and for you to act entitled, I'm just stunned that you are here on DU.

[jeff47]

59. Put the self-righteousness down and walk away.

You're really not portraying yourself in a good light.

[Aerows]

63. I think if you went a mile in my shoes here in 2005

You'd think I'm being kind.

[alphafemale]

74. Yeah. Disaster contest?

You only win that with a personal recollection about the USS Indianapolis in 1945.

[Aerows]

83. I'm sorry

I am aching, and remembering things I'd rather not remember.

[Aerows]

85. Maybe

but we all do what we need to do to protect ourselves from bad memories.

[Aerows]

96. And you assume a man,

instead of a hard working woman. Typical. I get you "Jefferson"

[Aerows]

52. Did you pull a single body out of the wreckage

did you do a single thing for the rest of the people that perished?

[yuiyoshida]

56. Oh yeah, like thats something a 15 year old would do...

pulling bodies out of the ground. Hello???

[Aerows]

65. I can only contend you are trying to annoy me so much

that I get banned. I won't give you the pleasure.

[yuiyoshida]

69. I am not..and I am sorry that you feel that way...

I just do not like people making assumptions about me before even knowing who I am. You don't know where I have been or what I have experienced... and besides...frankly, I have read your posts before..and like what you have had to say. Just because I am new on here...doesn't mean I have to be a target for being bullied. I will not be bullied on here... and feel I belong here as much as any one.

I like your posts, and you are a good person. So ..there are no hard feelings, ne?

[Aerows]

82. I think we both endured hardships

I think it was hard on both of us. Peace be with you.

[yuiyoshida]

92. and on you as well!

I hope we can focus our energies on defeating the Republicans, cause that is really important!

[LanternWaste]

73. No more and no less than others may contend you are doing nothing but turning this into a contest

No more and no less than others may contend you are doing nothing but turning this into a contest of who may have endured the most...

[pitbullgirl1965]

103. Agree. Playing the Oppression Olympics isn't very productive

not to mention the fact that people react in different ways to stress. Some may be better equipped to deal with it.

[mentalsolstice]

78. Nope, you're the annoying one here!

One upping on disasters! Really? All the other poster did was acknowledge how horrible high humidity can be at a relatively low temperature!

[Aerows]

79. So you aren't sensitive about pulling body parts out of the water?

Oh, I forgot, this is common place and I have no reason to be sensitive.

[SheilaT]

38. Personally, I can tell the difference between 100 and 115

in the desert. I've lived in both Tucson and Phoenix, and I very much dislike hot weather. I don't much mind humidity, but no matter where I'm living, I prefer it cool.

And I've never thought that 75 degrees with high humidity was that bad, maybe because I've lived in places that get well into the 90's in the summer with high humidity.

Oh, well, we're all different.

[Glitterati]

16. I can buy several used TVs at Goodwill locally for $15.00

BIG TVs.

These people begrudge folks on welfare anything that resembles a normal life.

I can't tell you how much I hate these bastards.

[G_j]

87. and shoes!

holes in em maybe, but why should they get welfare when they have that luxury ?

[HockeyMom]

17. Florida??????

I would be dead, or have committed suicide, w/o AC in South Florida. Besides which, how many places in 2013 here DON'T have AC?

[panader0]

18. Never had AC here

Evaporative coolers work fine in the high arid desert, not so well in Florida.

[Aerows]

21. You can't use anything, really

but A/C when humidity reaches 80%.

[HockeyMom]

26. Humdity is the problem

I never used AC up North in the 70s. I do here because the humidity is brutal too.

[Aerows]

29. Sweating doesn't even work

Because that is the bodies evaporative cooling system. I guess we weren't meant to live here, but here we are, and it is brutal when it is in the 90's and humidity is sustained at 80%+

[SheilaT]

40. Considering we evolved in Africa, in parts that get hot and have high humidity,

I'm not sure you can say we weren't meant to live here, meaning a place that gets hot with high humidity.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

57. Regarding heat, humidity and AC.

One thing is, did you grow up with AC?

I grew up in the Mid-Atlantic. IMHO, summers in the Mid-Atlantic are just as intense in terms of heat and humidity as they are in the South. However, my dad was not a fan of AC, and for most of my youth I grew up in a house without AC.

Not having AC growing up did help me build up a tolerance to heat and humidity. I will get hot and I will sweat in those conditions, but I really don't find it all that uncomfortable for me personally because of a tolerance. Had I grown up with AC, I don't think I would handle it nearly as well.

That all being said, whether you or not you find hot/humid conditions all that uncomfortable or not is beside the point. People can get heat stroke and die from those conditions, especially the elderly. That I can personally tolerate heat and humidity more than some other people may does not mean I view air conditioning as an unnecessary luxury, as Hasselback claimed. That's sheer lunacy.

[SheilaT]

99. Here's my history of heat, humidity, and a/c.

Born and lived in northern NY state until age 14. On and off humidity, never that hot, no a/c.

Then moved to Tucson, AZ. Hot. Oh, god was it hot. Had never experienced anything like that. At home we had a swamp cooler, which is what most people had then, in the early 60's. Schools, businesses, and so on were all a/c.

Moved to the Washington DC area. First three years with no a/c. I had a window fan and summers were dreadful. Then I moved to a newer apartment, had a/c.

Some years later moved to Minneapolis, no a/c the first summer. Not fun.

Then we moved to Phoenix, where we had a/c, not a swamp cooler, then to Boulder, no a/c, then to Kansas. A/c and also an attic fan, which is really wonderful in that kind of climate. You turn it on in the evening, with windows open, it will suck in the cooler air from outside, venting warmer air, and creating a nice breeze.

I now live in Santa Fe, where I have no a/c. Many people here have it, or a swamp cooler. My home is sited so that I pretty much don't need it, but I have been tempted to consider installing a swamp cooler.

If you actually knew me well you'd be amazed at the times I've lived without a/c because I really hate hot weather. I'm very happy in the cold. For one thing, you can dress for the cold. The only way to dress for the heat is to wear an air-conditioned car.

I used to say that my ideal apartment would be a walk-in freezer.

[Kaleva]

24. I don't. Can't afford it.

There really isn't that many days here in Upper Michigan where I'd say it would be really, really nice to have A/C. On those days, I just sweat. LOL!

[Aerows]

27. It stays sustained for several months hitting 90's and even the 100's here in the South

along with the joy of 80%+ humidity which you do not have in Michigan. Sweating doesn't work here (evaporative cooling), because you are just adding to the fact that it is oppressively humid.

[alarimer]

76. Quite a few outside the deep south, I think.

Mostly older buildings, I'm guessing.

When I came here to look for a place to live (northeastern North Carolina), I was surprised at how many places did not have central air. Most had a window unit or two, and oil heat. But all that was older housing and for a variety of reasons I prefer more modern conveniences so I opted to live in a relatively new apartment complex.

Still it surprised me, coming from Texas.

[HockeyMom]

94. That would not surprise me

since NC does have winters. We got hit driving through there and got stuck on I-95 in a blizzard few years ago. I worked in public schools on LI where the only AC was in administration. If it got into the 90s at the end of school year, it could great brutal. At least with older buildings you could open windows and try to get a breeze. I know most apartments in NE, or private homes, don't necessarily have central AC because the summer and heat doesn't last long, like it does in the Deep South.

[RebelOne]

84. I grew up in South Florida in the late '40s, '50s and the '60s.

And at that time the majority of homes did not have A/C. We only had fans. Believe me, I know what extreme heat and humidity is like. That's why I was ecstatic when the little bit of winter we had came.

[Aerows]

19. I assume these people

are in places other than the South. Here you can literally die, as was seen in Katrina with lack of air conditioning, and it isn't just some clumsy attempt at describing it as an "entitlement program" like TV.

People die of heat stroke when temperatures hit 90+ in humid conditions without air conditioning. Temperatures reach 90+ in humid conditions every day in the South, and I mean HIGH HUMIDITY (80+%), higher than islands or even in Southern Florida, because of our climate.

100 degrees here is enough to melt your car's dashboard, and pretty much kill you if you do too much outside as a physically active person. You have to wait until the sun goes down. And you can't use conventional means to cool things, either. A/C is about the only thing that works under extreme humidity.

[Dawson Leery]

20. Tax dollars for football stadiums (your monkey of a husband) is welfare for the rich.

Farm subsidies are welfare for the rich. Oil companies writing off depreciation on land they lease from others is welfare for the rich.

[JonLP24]

50. Bingo

For all the noise about services being cut, football stadiums will always find ways to be funded.

[treestar]

22. I hate these people who begrudge comfort of any kind

Especially the cell phone one. They want these things as status symbols and are just pissed that if even the poor can have them, they can't be status symbols anymore.

[LanternWaste]

23. Yesterday I read on DU that cell phones and McDonald's hamburgers are just as bad

Yesterday I read on DU that cell phones and McDonald's hamburgers are just as indicative of the ugly side of welfare as is air conditioning.

But it's kind of nice to know that as idiotic as I can be sometimes, as under-educated as I may often act, and as sub-literate as I can come across, there are yet others who excel in that regard, and simply leave me in the dust.

[HockeyMom]

28. Eat rice and beans

I heard complaints about welfare/food stamp people buying GRAPES, or VEGGIES, because they are "luxury items" and expensive. Excuse me????? DIE, if you need gubmit services, including SS and Medicare.

[applegrove]

31. What people buy with their income

is nobody's business. I had an air conditioner while dependant on disability. I could not have survived without it. My apartment was in an attick. And I chose that extra cheap apartment so that I would have more disposablle income to buy important stuff like an air conditioner. And when I left I gave it to a guy living on welfare for free. What was he supposed to do? Not accept it?

[BeyondGeography]

32. Common sense

Lacking.

[subterranean]

33. Some of them had TVs and AC before they went on welfare.

These right-wingers seem to think that people should have to get rid of all their worldly possessions as a condition for receiving welfare. They also act as if good-paying jobs with benefits are readily available for anybody who wants one.

[polly7]

64. I wonder how they believe anyone can climb out of poverty without knowing

what's going on in the world around them or without being able to communicate for purposes of employment opportunities, child-care, education ... let alone have the basics for survival such as running water and AC on days with temps that can, in fact, kill .. the very young, the elderly and those already weakened with medical issues. These privileged haters of the poor seem to want more to keep them that way, imho ... although in Hasselbeck's case, I do think it's just pure ignorance.

[markpkessinger]

97. Not to mention . . .

. . . that it is usually pretty easy to pick up a second-hand TV or A/C someplace.

[SammyWinstonJack]

35. She is a horrible creature. She is the ugly side of the Privileged.

Clueless little shit.

[JonLP24]

43. Why am I not surprised

she got a job at 'Fair and Balanced' Fox News??

Man, I've been away for a long time.

[budkin]

46. Vapid [word deleted for being too explicit]

[Enrique]

49. she should have cited her "Survivor" experience

if she can survive those conditions, why can't poor people?

[magical thyme]

60. um, Hasselbeck, you moran, my tracfone cell phone costs $8/month

compared to the $48/month I paid for a landline.

Or are you suggesting having any phone service is a luxury. In which case, how the eff do you expect people to look for jobs? Pound the pavement the way they did in the "good ol' days?" That'll get'em hired in a hurry.

[Southside]

68. Those with the most should respect those with the least

Keep stepping on poor people and you might lose everything including the leg you stand on.

Our nation is stronger when we respect those in needs and they have hope. Fox News is waking up a sleeping giant, disrespecting poor working families is a big mistake. When they awake change comes to America.

[LTR]

70. Wireless phone service can be much cheaper than landline

There are many simple prepaid plans where one can get a phone for $20 or less and pay $25 a month. Can't get a landline that cheap.

Old CRT TV sets are obsolete to the point of basically being free. Just check the nearest curb.

Most apartments have A.C.

These people have no grasp of reality.

[markpkessinger]

98. I stopped maintaining a landline over a decade ago . . .

. . . because, as a single adult, it was a superfluous expense, and cell phone service is much more economical.

[madrchsod]

72. another bubble headed bleach blonde on the fucked news

she must have had an ironclad contract on the view to last as long as she did.

[kimbutgar]

77. Didn't like her on the View now I dislike her even more on Faux

I would love to slap that smug bitch in the face and lock her in an non air-conditioned room and throw away the key.

[jsr]

80. U.S. tax dollars spent annually on air conditioning in Iraq and Afghanistan: $20.2 billion.

[Purveyor]

91. +1000 eom

[indepat]

81. Enough to make one wonder if Elisabeth Hasselbeck is representative of "The Ugly Side"

of humanity.

[Tikki]

89. She is 'the ugly side' of human....

Tikki

[Glimmer of Hope]

90. What an asshole.

[Aerows]

93. I apologize to anyone I offended in this thread about my experiences with Katrina

but I nearly killed us, and there were people it did kill. I can't possibly be blasé and sit here and say it didn't affect me. It did. The rebuilding process was ... at times, ugly. But I was here, doing it, and I don't appreciate people that weren't here dictating how I should feel about it. It was ugly, it was nasty and it was enough to haunt your dreams and make you cry in the day.

I'll shut up about it, because obviously, it was irrelevant, but it hurt.

[rhett o rick]

104. As a society some of us do not want people to starve to death. If necessary we may give

them welfare of one kind or other. While it may look like giving the poor welfare is enabling, if you have dealt with those in poverty you will know that they would love to get work and get out of poverty. The conservatives are tight-assed greedy bastards with no empathy. They want to justify their stinginess by any means possible. Even if giving aid to those in poverty is enabling, the answer isnt to deny them the aid. That's not going to get them work. The answer is creating more jobs.

Stossel and Hasselbeck are the ugly side of humanity.

[Uncle Joe]

105. Hasselbeck is the ugly side of pretty.

Thanks for the thread, Purveyor.

[anneboleyn]

106. Stossel wants the poor to live in third world conditions. Hasselbeck is a twit.

Stossel has a bizarre obsession with and evil intention to punish the poor, the disabled, anyone he deems "lesser" and "dependent." He is an insane Ayn Randian whack job; he fantasizes about the poor living in debtors prisons without ANY modern amenities, including such phenomenal luxuries as a television or air-conditioning in buildings in the south, etc.

They are disgusting individuals. Offensive multi-millionaires blathering about punishing the "welfare queens" and "evil poor" by forcing them to live in appalling conditions and to endure humiliation (Stossel has a peculiar fascination with this actually).