This is a rush transcript from “Hannity,” April 15, 2009. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
HANNITY: Welcome back to this special edition of “Hannity.” We are broadcasting live from the Atlanta anti-tax rally. We are in front of the Georgia state capitol building, and then around like four city blocks and then some, over 15,000 to 20,000 people joining us here tonight.
And joining us now is the man who brought the issue of taxation to the forefront of the 2008 presidential campaign, Joe the Plumber. Joe Wurzelbacher.
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
You know, you got some fans — isn’t it great? I’ve got to tell you, everybody that’s here tonight, you’re going to save our country and thank you for that.
JOE WURZELBACHER, “JOE THE PLUMBER”: Absolutely. Thank you.
• Video: Watch Sean’s interview
HANNITY: I mean that.
WURZELBACHER: Thank you. Thank you very much.
HANNITY: But here’s what I want to — you’ve got Barack Obama, one of the five seconds that he wasn’t reading his teleprompter, and I actually think he sleeps with it at night, and — but you got him to say something that really got at least some Americans to pause.
WURZELBACHER: Yes.
HANNITY: And he said spread the wealth. And Joe Biden said it’s our patriotic duty to pay more taxes.
(BOOS)
Did you ever expect that we’d have TARP one, TARP two, that we’d had stimulus one at $1.3 trillion, a $4 trillion debt?
WURZELBACHER: No. No, I didn’t expect it at all. I figured, honestly guys, I figured the American people would step up a little faster than we have. But we have now. And we’re just going to have to work harder to make this come back to our country. So, no, I didn’t expect it at all. This is ridiculous.
HANNITY: You see, I think one of the things that happened in the campaign is Barack Obama, very cleverly, had a bunch of campaign advisors. He read his speeches off the teleprompter, and then that one minute that you asked him a tough question, because just about every other anchor in America was getting tingly feelings running up and down their legs.
(LAUGHTER)
WURZELBACHER: Well, the eagles, too. They’re flying over — yes.
HANNITY: Yes. Can you imagine a whole network got tingly feelings with the whole campaign? But you got to ask a very pertinent question, and he said to you, Joe, I want to spread the wealth around.
WURZELBACHER: Exactly. And I mean, you know, essentially what he said is, he wants me to earn my money, he wants to give it to somebody else and then he wants me to work for it again. I mean that’s just makes no sense.
(BOOS)
HANNITY: You know the question, though, I think America now has got to ask themselves as they want to put, according to the Congressional Budget Office, $10 trillion in debt for our children and grandchildren, I think the main question we’ve got to ask ourselves tonight, is American overtaxed on this April 15th or are we under taxed nation?
WURZELBACHER: We’re overtaxed. Easily over taxed, come on. Now the biggest thing, I tell you what. I just jumped on a platform, I got an IRSvote.com I’m working on. I’m asking the American people to become their own lobbyist, actually become their own lobbyists, don’t listen to the Washington guys. Become your own lobbyists. Vote the IRS out, vote the fair tax in.
HANNITY: Yes.
WURZELBACHER: That’s what we need to do.
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
HANNITY: We’re going to get — this is fair tax land.
WURZELBACHER: Yes, it is. It is.
HANNITY: This is — we call this — we’re going to call this Boortzland. What do you make of…
(“FAIR TAX” CHEERS)
WURZELBACHER: It’s up to you guys, it’s up to all of us to do it.
HANNITY: And you wonder why I call that land a Boortzland. But I guess the issue here is, I had an opportunity, I wish I could literally spend an hour with every person here and shake their hand, because every person that I talked to had a story to tell me and the average person gets up every day, and they get up at 6:00. They may do a workout. They get their kids dressed for school, they feed their kids and every person here they work 10, 12, 14, 16 hours a day.
And all around the country Americans pay anywhere between 40 and 50 to 60 percent of their income in taxes. So do you think that what we’re seeing tonight maybe is the spark, the proposition 13 that ignites the fire that Americans say, we’re not going to take it anymore and Pelosi and Reid and Obama good-bye?
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
WURZELBACHER: Just look at the excitement here. I mean this isn’t going to go away any time soon. This is the start. It’s going to be the American people that actually, you know, step up and make this happen. It’s not just going to be any one of us, it’s going to be all of us.
HANNITY: Yes. It really is. You know what did you make of the president? Because, you obviously, you know, your moment helped John McCain. And I watched that debate up closely and John McCain, they all started mentioning you.
And now Barack Obama has had some time in office. What do you think of his policies up to this point?
WURZELBACHER: I’m not impressed with his policies up to this point. But you also got to remember, he’s just one man. I mean Congress really bears a lot of the brunch here, a lot of the blame. So…
(CHEERS)
And it’s not that I’m weak on Obama, I believe he’s made some mistakes that could hurt our country.
HANNITY: Yes.
WURZELBACHER: I think he’s pretty weak on foreign policy. It scares me. With that being said, it comes back down to Congress. You guys got to turn off the soap opera that is Capitol Hill. You get unaddicted to drama that actually expect them to earn their money.
(CHEERS)
HANNITY: Now, by the way, I’d bet any amount of money — you know they came out with the Department of Homeland Security, that no longer uses the term “war on terror, ” they’re calling it an “overseas contingency operation.”
WURZELBACHER: Yes. Yes.
(BOOS)
HANNITY: This is amazing. But they — if you have a pro-life bumper sticker on your car, if you have an “America is overtaxed” bumper sticker, if you have a pro-Second Amendment bumper sticker, they’re viewing you potentially as a radical.
My question…
(BOOS)
My question is, if those are right-wing radicals, does that mean that somebody that starts their political career in Bill Ayers’ house and hangs out with Jeremiah Wright for 20 years…
(CHEERS)
What does that make them?
WURZELBACHER: I’ll tell you what, let me ask you one more question. Am I an extremist for saying, “in God we trust”?
HANNITY: No.
(CHEERS)
And by the way, and I said God bless America.
And by the way, we might want to steal a phrase from Jeremiah Wright.
President Obama, there’s 15,000 to 20,000 people here. You know what, if I was Jeremiah Wright, I’d probably say, America’s voters have come home to roost.
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