Promoting the new season of his ABC sitcom Last Man Standing, actor and Republican Tim Allen joined Thursday’s Hannity on Fox News Channel (FNC) to blast the federal government over reckless spending, the national debt, and a culture of political correctness that he tries to rebuke on the show where he plays “a very smart Archie Bunker.”
Allen explained to host Sean Hannity that he (Allen the person) is a “fiscal conservative” who “like[s] problem solving” that “originates for my family, there’s nine kids and my single mom for awhile and a lot of it was about how are we going to pay for this.”
Continuing on that theme, Allen explained the treacheries of living in a heavily-regulated Democratic neighborhood in Hollywood:
In my neighborhood in north Hollywood, we’ve wanted to get trees put in and here in communist California it is difficult because there are so many regulations but you can get stuff done, we planted trees, got our street cleaned up[.]
Reiterating that he’s “a problem solver...whoever it works with,” Allen went on to relay something he heard from a stereotypical liberal at a fundraiser he was invited to:
I don't know who said it, we went to a fund-raiser, my mom wanted to see a fund-raiser. Happened to be a Democratic fund-raiser because I'm a comedian I get invited to these things and somebody – I won't name names – said there is a way we can spend our way out of debt and that’s not a particularly Republican point of view.
Feeding off of this quip, Hannity gloated: “Just think about that. Spend our way out of debt. Oh, okay. If that’s the case, we’d be the richest country and we’d have any debt at all now because we’re spending a lot of money.”
In another swipe at government spending, Allen observed that, in Las Vegas, “[y]ou can spend your way out of debt there” and “one thing Vegas does is they make a promise, they keep a promise” as “[i]f they owe you money, they owe you money.”
This stands in contrast to bloated governments who, as Allen highlighted “every now and then, as you well know, say ‘well, I wasn’t really expecting you to need all that money.’”
After reminiscing about the conservative position that the federal government should work to balance the budget by cutting one penny for every dollar of spending over a set time period, Allen turned the conversation to explaining the dynamics of the production crew on his show in which he plays a passionate conservative father:
Mike Baxter’s character is a lot of me. What’s genius about Last Man Standing is we have a very liberal-bent group that writes this and no one makes fun of liberals better than liberals when they're on their game and there’s not many conservatives in this group that write, but what we like to do is have fun with it. This is a graduate from the University of Michigan, yay, yay, yay, and he has an intelligence so we designed it so it could be like a very smart Archie Bunker. I want to say provocative things, I want to get thought, but it's a family.
Turning to political correctness and as Hannity lamented the lack of another Archie Bunker on television today, Allen chuckled and told him that “[y]ou’re singing to the choir” and gave an anecdote of what happened when his character referred to Obama in an episode as a communist:
I get – for awhile, I get notes that, Mike Baxter, he got so mad he’d call Obama a communist and boy we got Facebooks, both sides of that and eventually they said – standards and practice said that you had to calm that down. You can't call the president a communist. I said, you know, we deal with China as a brother in economic growth and they are a communist country. It doesn’t mean what it used to mean. That being said, I listen – I do push the button a little bit too hard sometimes.
It should be noted that, in another interview hyping Last Man Standing, Allen vocalized his pick for the 2016 Republican nomination in Ohio Governor John Kasich.
The relevant portions of the transcript from FNC’s Hannity on September 24 can be found below.
FNC’s Hannity
September 24, 2015
10:47 p.m. Eastern
SEAN HANNITY: Welcome back to Hannity. Tim Allen is one of Hollywood’s biggest stars and his hit show Last Man Standing returns for its fifth season tomorrow night. Allen’s character, Mike Baxter, is a self-described man's man who tells like it is on everything including politics....I've seen the show. I look at the character, Mike Baxter. He's a conservative dad. He's got a conservative blog, a web blog. He just trashed Hillary Clinton a little bit, took a nice shot at her in that clip and I'm thinking how real is – how close to Tim Allen is Mike Baxter?
TIM ALLEN: Well, I'm what they call fiscal conservative. I like problem solving. Problem solving usually originates for my family, there's nine kids and my single mom for a while and a lot of it was about how are we going to pay for this. My family's all about that. How you going to pay for it? Any idea? In my neighborhood in north Hollywood, we’ve wanted to get trees put in and here in communist California it is difficult because there are so many regulations but you can get stuff done, we planted trees, got our street cleaned up and our councilman – he was the guy that did it and we worked with him – figured out how to work with Paul Krekorian.
HANNITY: Right.
ALLEN: Paul Krekorian is our councilman and I work with this guy and I say, when you work – Tim Allen tends to be a problem solver. I like problem solving, period, whoever it works with, but if you don't know – I don't know who said it, we went to a fund-raiser, my mom wanted to see a fund-raiser. Happened to be a Democratic fund-raiser because I'm a comedian I get invited to these things and somebody – I won't name names – said there is a way we can spend our way out of debt and that’s not a particularly Republican point of view.
HANNITY: Just think about that. Spend our way out of debt. Oh, okay. If that’s the case, we’d be the richest country and we’d have any debt at all now because we’re spending a lot of money.
ALLEN: Exactly and I’m not – I’m not a version of that, though I work Las Vegas at the Mirage and Las Vegas is the only place that uses it to their advantage. You can spend your way out of debt there, that’s what they count on and one thing Vegas does is they make a promise, they keep a promise. If they owe you money, they owe you money. This government – every now and then, as you well know, say “well, I wasn’t really expecting you to need all that money and that’s where I totally – I think you came up with his penny rule or this dollar rule. You take a dollar off every program?
HANNITY: No. You take a penny off of every program.
ALLEN: Yeah. You’re the guy.
HANNITY: It’s really simple and I don't understand why one candidate doesn't adopt this. You stop base line budgeting, which is the built-in increases of eight percent a year which has grown government to the point we have $20 trillion in debt, $120 in unfunded liabilities. You take one penny out of every dollar every year for six years, you balance your budget. Simple, right?
ALLEN: It makes so much sense. Mike Baxter’s character is a lot of me. What’s genius about Last Man Standing is we have a very liberal-bent group that writes this and no one makes fun of liberals better than liberals when they're on their game and there’s not many conservatives in this group that write, but what we like to do is have fun with it. This is a graduate from the University of Michigan, yay, yay, yay, and he has an intelligence so we designed it so it could be like a very smart Archie Bunker. I want to say provocative things, I want to get thought, but it's a family. I have daughters. In one episode, I was a very machismo guy and I don’t want women playing on softball teams, I don’t women doing this, but don't tell my daughters they can't do it. So, the guy has this conflicted background. It’s been –
HANNITY: Can you imagine, though, if we had a real Archie Bunker on TV? All in the Family was a great show. We’re so nauseatingly politically correct now, oh, we couldn't have an Archie Bunker today. I mean, people would flip and lose their minds.
ALLEN: You're singing to the choir. I get – for awhile, I get notes that, Mike Baxter, he got so mad he’d call Obama a communist and boy we got Facebooks, both sides of that and eventually they said – standards and practice said that you had to calm that down. You can't call the president a communist. I said, you know, we deal with China as a brother in economic growth and they are a communist country. It doesn’t mean what it used to mean. That being said, I listen – I do push the button a little bit too hard sometimes.
HANNITY: Nah, I always thought you're funny. I love all these Hollywood people I’ve met over the years. They whisper in my ear, don't tell anyone I'm conservative. I agree with you.” I’m like, what are you afraid to mention. “I don't want to hurt my career.” I'm thinking wow, that’s pretty sad.
