Actor Craig T. Nelson Decries Govt Bailouts, Wasteful Spending

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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."

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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.

—Brad Wilmouth is a news analyst at the Media Research Center.


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No more movie roles for YOU,

No more movie roles for YOU, Mr. Nelson !!!!!!

He's in two movies coming

He's in two movies coming out soon as well as a lead in a new TV series for this coming fall.

Yes

and all BEFORE these comments, eh???

What useful comments -

What useful comments - don't like the political situaion - advocate breaking the law by not pay your taxes.

Nelson call Snipes regarding how the above strategy worked out for him . . .

I've got a better plan, stop complaining and start organizing (call it coaching if it will get you off your butt to actually doing something useful) your friends and neighbors for the next election in 2010 to get rid of the socialists - including Swarzendufus. 

That's One Suggestion

Unfortunately, ACORN and the democrats are going to make it as difficult as possible for there to ever be a fair election again.  Besides, the republicans don't seem to be helping all that much, either.  

I support what Mr. Nelson is saying - I would call him a hero.

Taxes.

some states are delaying tax refunds.  I strongly advise delaying payment of quarterly estimated income taxes.  At the end of the year, income will go down and there won't be penalties. 

Obama hires people that are tax cheats and we wonder why people are slow to pay.

People also are pinching on sending in taxes because they know it will be risky expecting refunds.  Companies are holding back because the government is interfering with their getting loans.  Use tax money for working capital.

"....advocate breaking the

"....advocate breaking the law by not pay your taxes....."

Is it proper law?  Or is it that we are threatened with consequences that we don't want to face, though it's not a Constituational law?  The IRS has always been very heavy-handed, threatening, etc.  Why?  Do they not have a law to point to so they have to scare people into obeying?  Just a thought.

As you may know, there has always been a controversy over whether the 16th Amendment was properly ratified or not.  If nothing else, it's an extremely interesting thing to read about.

Check out this site as a start.

http://www.thelawtha...

On the audio page, listen to the first lawyer's interaction with the judge in this clip.  The judge never once mentions a law.  He only mentions that courts have always ruled in favor of the tax collector.  He never says that they ruled in favor based on a written law. He could easily shutdown the lawyer by simply stating which law, but he doesn't.  The question is, why not?

http://www.thelawtha...

Proof

 Mr. Nelson is proof that there are some actors in hollywood that actually do have a brain! Unfortunately them 99.9% of them are total asshats, with sh*t for brains.

 Why is it that EVERYTIME a liberal opens their mouth, I feel a sudden urge to hand them a roll of toilet paper?

 "Unfortunately for

 "Unfortunately for them".....uh boy I hate when my mind works faster than my typing.....what was I just saying about poop for brains?  ;)

Why is it that EVERYTIME a liberal opens their mouth, I feel a sudden urge to hand them a roll of toilet paper?

The Lesson of CA

The Arnold-experience with California illustrates that we should look to Governors over Congress for our Presidents. Arnold could have been a Senator all these years, and we would not have seen how hopeless he would be as a President. You can say the same about the bumbling Granholm; at one time her and Schwarzenegger were great Presidential hopes of their respective parties. (Thus the talk of a 22nd Amendment deal.) You can say the same things about Gore, Kerry, Biden, the Bamster, any Kennedy, etc.

Just one slight upside of the California bankruptcy, it has killed any of that talk. His only future is in Hollywood, or maybe ambassador to Austria.

slick - I would advocate that being a member of Congress is

an automatic DISQUALIFIER for the presidency!

There are very few who could run a corner store or even know how to balance their own checkbooks, much less run a country! 

We watched Coach on Glenn Beck last night and agree with his comments!  It was quite obvious how sincere he was.  From our standpoint in life, it is indeed sad to think of what America will be like for our grandchildren and great-grandchildren.  (One lesson I learned from his comments - that one can live in California and still retain some common sense.) 

This comment comes from a proud Tea Party attendee, otherwise known as a RWRE!!   It is no dishonor to be in a minority in the cause of liberty and virtue ~ Sam Adams

Carbon indulgences

Carbon tax and indulgences are on the way.  Plenty of money to cover the waste. 

OK...as an aside

OK...as an aside here...what happened to the blog post that was right above this one a few minutes ago regarding Tucker Carlson and his new blog, I think the poster was Mitchell Blatt...I clicked read more and got access denied...and the whole thing is gone now anyway...

Anybody else see this?

Please say you did...anybody?

Doubling down on stupid is not a particularly good idea. ~Andrew Breitbart

Ummm...

I didn't see it, sorry. : (

 

Gary

Gettin' along is so much easier than buttin' heads. - My Dad

And funner too! - Me

Gary... Uh-Oh! Maybe

Gary...

Uh-Oh!

Maybe it's time for me to open a cold one and wonder what happened...lol.

Thanks for the reply though, I was really interested in reading the rest...and possibly commenting no doubt.

Doubling down on stupid is not a particularly good idea. ~Andrew Breitbart

That's ok BT

That post is back up now I see. Whew!

 

Gary

Gettin' along is so much easier than buttin' heads. - My Dad

And funner too! - Me

Gary... LOL...I'm

Gary...

LOL...I'm safe!

Doubling down on stupid is not a particularly good idea. ~Andrew Breitbart

Um...

I think we in California elected the wrong actor.

Bravo!!

Thank you Craig T. Nelson!! Gotta love the Conservatives . . He was a great COACH and is a great bad guy on CSI: NY as well as his other roles.

And he has a brain! How 'bout that!

 

 

 

Isaiah 5:20a Woe unto them who call evil good, and good evil. . .  KJV

I believe Nelson was a

I believe Nelson was a liberal as far back as the early '80s, so his comments on Beck's show yesterday are surprising and also refreshing. Glad to see that he has become wise in his old age. :-)

“There are no easy answers' but there are simple answers. We must have the courage to do what we know is morally right.” - Ronald Reagan (1964 Republican Convention)

Although . . .

I defend to the death Mr. Nelson's right to say whatever he wants and I agree with what he is saying, but he's just an actor. What do we always say about actors who shoot their mouths off? We usually say that they are just an actor. ''Shut up and sing'' kinda stuff.

Mr. Nelson is unusually well-verse regarding our government and is absolutely right about the bail-outs.  And, for the record, I like sea otters, too. But I do not want to help neither businesses nor animals by force via the idiots in government.  What in the hell do they know about businesses?

I disagree

Ronald Reagan was just an actor, too. There's nothing particularly disqualifying about being an actor. The relevant question is, is the actor right? Does the actor know his or her stuff?

The problem with the Sean Penns of the world is not that they're actors. It's that they're stupid, uneducated, and easily manipulated. But not all actors are Sean Penn...as we're finally discovering after all these years.

Did Wesley Snipes not pay

Did Wesley Snipes not pay because he was making a political statement, or was he just being a cheat?

 California = hedge fund, love it.

This is certainly tempting...

Wes had it right

Snipes and the other anti-taxers out there are on the right side of the law. They're just on the wrong end of the gun.

C.T. Nelson

jessieH          I agree 100% with Nelson. The fed is out of control.  I thought I lived in the UNITED STATES of AMERICA, not the govt. of america. Do not, do not, re-elect any of these inept idiots that have been destroying our country. I don't care if they are dems or reps,           YOU CAN'T FIX STUPID!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Immaterial

Whether Nelson does what he says he'll do is immaterial.  I think the larger point he is trying to make is our government is out of control and no longer accountable to us.  Our representatives, ones WE elected do exactly as they please, the constitution be damned.  My guess is there are plenty of people who have been thinking just what Nelson is saying, but will carry on as usual because human nature being what it is, we wont stand together.  It's like in high school and your buddies all decided they'd all come to school the next day with a mohawk... and it turns out you are the only one who did.  Nobody wants to go to jail alone and be a martyr.

Btw - Nelson also had a TV series i the 80's:

Call To Glory (http://www.imdb.com/...)

"I dont need to read a newspaper to know the world's been shaved by a drunken barber."

Walter Brennan, The Colonel, Meet John Doe, 1941