Actor Craig T. Nelson Decries Govt Bailouts, Wasteful Spending

On Thursday's Beck program on FNC, actor Craig T. Nelson complained about excessive taxation and spending by the California state government, as well as the federal government, as he suggested that people should stop paying taxes to protest the government's handling of their money. Nelson: "If my children, my grandchildren, and my great grandchild who is about to be here, is not going to be educated properly, then I'm through with it, you know. I'm not going to spend money on these things that you're asking me to. Look, they should be allowed to go bankrupt. What happened to, we are a capitalistic society. Okay, I go into business, I don't make it, I go bankrupt. They're not going to bail me out."

As the interview began with some joking about whether host Glenn Beck's cold may be swine flu, the former star of the television show Coach cracked that he would not want to ride on a plane with Vice President Biden: "I'm not getting in a confined space with him." He soon took to task the politicians of his home state of California: "It's no longer a state. It's a hedge fund."

He went on to complain about being overtaxed: "As an investor, as someone who gets taxed an awful lot, I just say I'm not going to pay until you guys can show me that you're fiscally responsible."

Below is a complete transcript of the interview with Nelson from the Thursday, May 29, Beck show on FNC:

GLENN BECK: Now, Craig T. Nelson is with us.

CRAIG T. NELSON, ACTOR: Hi.

BECK: I was the biggest Coach fan.

NELSON: Do you have a cold?

BECK: I do have a cold.

NELSON: A little nose cold?

BECK: Yeah.

NELSON: Yeah, okay.

BECK: Why, do you have one?

NELSON: I just don't want to get too close to you.

BECK: Just a little swine flu. That’s all it is.

NELSON: Well, don't take a plane. Joe Biden, he'll tell you what to do.

BECK: You wouldn't take a plane, would you?

NELSON: No. I'm not getting in a confined space with him.

BECK: Can you imagine what a nightmare that would be? But you’d have all the nation's secrets.

NELSON: Yeah, he's probably a very nice guy. This desk is very shiny.

BECK: Thank you for pointing that out. You were in fights in the green room, weren't you?

NELSON: Yeah, Bill O'Reilly. He's huge. Not anymore. I got his knees. No, he’s in my house every night. You, too. I’ve been watching your eyes.

NELSON: Yeah, I know, I know.

NELSON: So, California, huh?

BECK: Yeah, you're from California.

NELSON: It's no longer a state. It's a hedge fund.

BECK: Yes, it's crazy.

NELSON: Well, I do have a solution. There’s only one way. We got to make them, you know, have to make people stand up for the responsibilities. They were accountable. And they haven't been, you know. No one is accountable anymore for anything. No one did anything wrong. Well, you're to blame. That's to blame. This is to blame. As an investor, as someone who gets taxed an awful lot, I just say I'm not going to pay until it you guys can show me that you're fiscally responsible. Until then -- listen, the first thing they went after, education. We're going to cut education.

BECK: Why would they do that?

NELSON: Why? That's the most important thing in the world.

BECK: And then cops and prisons.

NELSON: And firefighters. We don't have any fires in California. They were within half a mile of my house within three times.

...

BECK: When you saw Arnold Schwarzenegger on Leno the other day, did you?

NELSON: No, I didn't.

BECK: Okay, well, basically, he said, "I got the message now." Now you get the message?

NELSON: But, look, we’ve had legislators, we are no longer represented, okay. We just aren't. And there’s been a political fight. There’s been a pluralism in our California government. You certainly see it reflected in the national government, don't you? I mean, people are blaming each other. Nobody is taking responsibility for what they said or what they did.

BECK: Yeah.

NELSON: And those people are responsible to us. They were elected. This is a democracy.

BECK: So what do you do? Are you seriously-

NELSON: It is a republic. My God!

BECK: Thank you for saying we are a republic.

NELSON: No, we are a republic. And that means that we need to be represented. And we’re not being, we're not being represented listened – I'm not going to pay any more money. What these people are asking me to do-

BECK: You're seriously saying I’m not going to, you’re not-

NELSON: No, I'm asking Glenn Beck to promote this. I'm saying it personally. But I'm asking you-

BECK: Are you saying you personally won't pay income tax anymore?

NELSON: I'm really thinking about it, Glenn, because as a fiscally responsible grandfather, there are programs that they're asking me to fund that I refuse to fund.

BECK: You know, I have to tell you-

NELSON: If the veterans coming back are not getting what they deserve, those people that have served, that put themselves in harm's way, if my children, my grandchildren, and my great grandchild who is about to be here, is not going to be educated properly, then I'm through with it, you know. I'm not going to spend money on these things that you're asking me to. Look, they should be allowed to go bankrupt. What happened to, we are a capitalistic society. Okay, I go into business, I don't make it, I go bankrupt. They're not going to bail me out. I've been on food stamps and welfare. Anybody help me out? No. No. They gave me hope, and they gave me encouragement, and they gave me a vision. And that came from my education. So, to me, you know, going back to California and the hedge fund, because we're no longer a state, I just feel like going after our kids, our education, and the most valuable people we have on the planet, teachers. I just have to tell you, I'm so sick and tired of it. I'm just sick and tired of it. And I'm old enough now, to have been in the business for 45 years, they can't fire me.

BECK: They can always fire you. Okay, more with Coach here in just a second.

[COMMERCIAL BREAK]

...

NELSON: Hey, listen, here’s the Declaration of Independence. I brought this for you. But there’s a quote in here that’s very, very minimal, "Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes, and accordingly all experience has shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed," Okay? But when the long train of abuses and transgressions, and I have had enough of it. So the only way that I can protest in any viable and visible form for myself is to say I'm not paying you right now.

BECK: Are you willing to go to jail for that?

NELSON: I'm going to go to jail. But I still think it’s kind of a mafia deal because they’ve got a subcontractor who says, they're extorting me, and they’re saying you’re going to pay us this amount. What am I going to pay now? 90 percent of what I make? Remember, I’ve got California, federal and state. That's unfair. That's taxation without representation.

BECK: I think if the United States government takes over California's loans, I think it is taxation without representation. I couldn't vote for any of that. I couldn’t vote for that. You’re doing,

People out in California are saving the sea otters. How about saving people?

NELSON: I like the sea otters.

BECK: I like the sea otters, too, but I think-

NELSON: So people who want to save them should pay for them.

BECK: Yeah.

NELSON: But if I don't want to save the sea otters, is that anarchy?

BECK: No, this is American.

NELSON: That's what I thought. And that's what they were saying was-

BECK: That’s right. When is the last time you read-

NELSON: "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore," Peter Finch! What happened to that? Well, look, Paddy Chayefsky wrote about it. And then you get into the medium is the message. No, you have to be quiet and you have to be docile. What do you do? You suffer.

BECK: You suffer.

BECK: When’s the last time you read Common Sense by Thomas Paine?

NELSON: Two years ago.

BECK: Wow. You read it again, it's on fire right now. It's on fire. I have just rewritten it, and it comes out in about three weeks. I’ll send you a copy.

NELSON: Would you?

BECK: Yeah.

NELSON: Okay.

BECK: Because you are, I tell you, I think you're the first person I have heard that is expressing the way I feel that, you know, you get to a point where, enough, I'll go to jail. I will go to jail before I pay you another dime for this insanity.

NELSON: Yeah.

BECK: Because thi is, you're not responding. Everybody in America knows this is crazy.

NELSON: Why am I being forced to pay for these bailouts?

BECK: I don't know.

NELSON: Why?

BECK: You own 72 percent now of General Motors. You know that? 72 percent.

NELSON: I didn't want to be in a car company.

BECK: I didn't either. Otherwise I would have invested in stock.

NELSON: That's correct. And I don't have that kind of stock. I have real estate, and that has gone down.

BECK: In California?

NELSON: Yeah, please, a hedge fund.

BECK: All right, what a pleasure.

NELSON: Hey, thank you.

BECK: Hope to see you again.

NELSON: Am I done now? Can I stay for just awhile?

BECK: You can stay.

NELSON: I could polish this up some more. Boy, am I in trouble.

BECK: We’re going to tie the whole show together here.

NELSON: Honey, I didn't mean it all.