Craig T. Nelson on 'Glenn Beck'

This is a rush transcript from "Glenn Beck," May 28, 2009. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

GLENN BECK, HOST: 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? A little nose cold?

BECK: Yes.

NELSON: Yes, OK.

BECK: Why, do you have one?

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

BECK: It's just a little swine flu.

NELSON: We'll, 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 the confined space with him.

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

NELSON: Yes, 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: Yes, Bill O'Reilly. He's huge. Not anymore. I got his knees. I have him in my house every night. You, too. I have been watching your eyes.

• Video: Watch Beck's interview

NELSON: Yes, I know, I know.

NELSON: So California...

BECK: Yes. 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 is only one way. We have to make people stand up for the responsibilities. They were accountable. And they haven't been.

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 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.

(LAUGHTER)

They were within half a mile of my house within three times.

BECK: When you saw Jay Leno and Arnold Schwarzenegger —

(CROSSTALK)

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

NELSON: No, I didn't.

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

NELSON: But, look, we have had legislators — we are no longer represented, OK. We just aren't. And there has been a political fight. There has 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: Yes.

NELSON: And those people are responsible to us. They were elected. This is a democracy. 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. We're not being represented.

Listen, I'm not going to pay any more money. What these people are asking me to do —

BECK: You're seriously saying you won't?

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

BECK: Are you are 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: I have to tell you —

NELSON: 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 grandchildren is about to be here, is not going to be educated properly, then I'm through with it. I'm not going to spend money on these things that you're asking me to.

They should be allowed to go bankrupt! What happened — we are a capitalistic society. OK, 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. 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 and I have been in the business for 45 years. They can't fire me.

BECK: They can always fire you. More with Coach here in just a second.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BECK: New movie you're in, "The Proposal."

NELSON: "The Proposal," yes. Sandra Bullock is great. That was Ryan Reynolds, that kid.

BECK: Were you even in that clip?

NELSON: No, I wasn't.

BECK: Why did we show that clip?

NELSON: I don't think I'm in that movie.

(LAUGHTER)

BECK: That's a great movie, but he's not in it.

NELSON: Listen, here is the Declaration of Independence. I brought this for you. There is a quote in here that is 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," OK?

So a long trains 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 are willing to go to jail for that?

NELSON: I'm going to go to jail. But I think it is kind of a Mafia deal, because they have a subcontractor who says — they're extorting me, and they say you will pay us this amount.

What am I going to pay now? 90 percent of what I make? Remember, I have 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. 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. 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 — "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore" — Peter Finch! What happened to that?

Paddy Chayefsky wrote about it. And then you get into the medium is the message. No, you have to be quiet and be docile. What do you do? You suffer. You suffer.

BECK: When is the last time you read "Common Sense" by Thomas Paine?

NELSON: Two years ago.

BECK: Wow. Read it again. It's on fire right now. It's on fire.

I have just re-written it and it comes out in three weeks. I will send you a copy.

NELSON: Would you.

BECK: Yes, 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 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: Yes.

BECK: 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: Why7

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

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: Yes. Please, a hedge fund.

BECK: All right, what a pleasure. Good to see you again.

NELSON: OK, thank you. Am I done now? Can I stay for just awhile?

BECK: You can stay.

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

BECK: We will tie the whole show together.

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

(LAUGHTER)

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