Pat Robertson on 'Glenn Beck'

This is a rush transcript from "Glenn Beck," June 5, 2009. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

JUDGE ANDREW NAPOLITANO, GUEST HOST: We'll now talk to Pat Robertson. He's the host of the "700 Club." He's the spiritual adviser and founder of the Christian Broadcasting Network. But he's not only a religious leader. He's also a very shrewd businessman as well. Robertson is the author of the new book, "Right on the Money: Financial Advice for Tough Times."

Glenn sat down with Dr. Robertson recently and asked him how common sense plays a role in understanding money in this book.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. PAT ROBERTSON, AUTHOR, "RIGHT ON THE MONEY": It is very practical advice. You know, it could be the young couple just earning a little. It could be the people in middle age wondering to do about their retirement. There are clues and they're about whether they're refinancing mortgages which you need and the tables about what makes sense and what doesn't.

I mean, it's all — there's a chapter there on how to start a business. I mean, just very practical stuff.

GLENN BECK, HOST: What do you say to people who say money is the source of — the root of all evil?

ROBERTSON: Well, the Bible says, "The love of money is the root of all evil." And you look at this subprime mess that came about. Every part of it had to do with human greed and people who are willing to lie.

People asked for mortgages. Some day laborer, you know, is making $200 a week and asks for a $400,000 mortgage he couldn't pay. The mortgage broker knew it wasn't any good but he passed him through, and he was going to lie all along, went up to New York.

And the folks in New York said, "Well, let's package them together and we can put those out on the market." And then the ratings agencies who got paid by the New York investment banks put an AAA rating on it and then they sold those things in packages all over the world. We have polluted the world and it was all based on human greed.

BECK: So you know, I guess my problem is that our government now believes that they can force people to be charitable and also, that they can stop all greed through regulations.

Pat, I think there's only one cure for both of those. You can't do that. Isn't that the point of faith and religion and everything else to - not government, but our faith, to make us better people?

ROBERTSON: Well, you know, the prophet Jeremiah, a long, long time ago says the heart of man is deceitful and desperately wicked. Who can know it? Until the person's inner heart is changed, until the inner motive is changed, we're not going to have a different conduct.

And there is no government big enough to enforce that kind of conduct. It can't do it. And it was said I think by John Adams, "We don't have a government or a constitution capable of taming the animal passions of mankind." You can't do that with government. These socialists think you can.

BECK: I get into a lot of trouble. I saw written up in some newspaper written up the other day that I said that our government is doing the bidding right now of the forces of evil.

I mean, the idea of taking choice away from people — I mean, that's why we're here. We're here to make choices and it's up to us to decide what are the right choices. Don't we take away - when we take away choices, don't we take away the divine right to learn and to grow?

ROBERTSON: Well, of course we do. We take away the essential genius of America when we do that. You know, Franklin Roosevelt used the Great Depression to bring forth a dramatic change in the way we did - lived their lives.

Obama and his crew are taking advantage of this to insert socialism and government control. He, you know, winds up taking over the automobile industry, the banking industry and before long, health care. And it's a massive power grab to satisfy the left.

BECK: Yes. You know — because I read your book and it's great and it's easy to understand. I mean, it's — right now, everybody tries to make this financial mess so complex, and it's really not.

It is — I should say it's not when you speak the truth like you speak it in your book where you just say, "Look. Not everybody is meant to own a house." Nobody says that anymore. Nobody says that.

ROBERTSON: That's true.

BECK: Defend yourself on that, Pat.

ROBERTSON: Well, you know, if a person doesn't have any income, how can he afford the expenses? And I went through the list of all the things you have to do to own a house. You have to pay taxes. You have to have upkeep. You have to pay a mortgage. You have to have somebody cut the grass. You have utilities and it goes on and on and on.

And the chapter was love nest or money pit, and a house is, for many people, a money pit and they can't afford it, so not everybody should own a home. They shouldn't, because they can't afford it.

BECK: You talk a lot about our national debt, which, I mean, as you pointed out in the book, we are spending $17,000 a second just on interest. It's going to be, in — I think it's 2019 — if everything stays stable, which it's not going to. Just the interest on what we have right now, by 2019, is going to approach $1 trillion a year, which is absolutely unsustainable. We can't pay for that. Is what we're doing —

ROBERTSON: Well, Glenn —

BECK: Go ahead.

ROBERTSON: Well, I was going to say is yesterday, I had a real thrill. My granddaughter brought her daughter to let me see her. She's about five weeks old. And I held this precious little girl. I'm now a great grandfather, and I held her in my arms. And you do that and you realize that that child is being burdened with the excesses of the government we've got right now. And it's not right.

BECK: I was just going to ask you that. That leads me to this — beyond that right, isn't it immoral? Aren't we making our children and grandchildren indentured servants?

ROBERTSON: It's totally immoral. It is theft. And whether it's theft with a gun or theft with a tax collector, it doesn't matter. We are stealing resources from the future generations.

BECK: Thank you. Pat Robertson — the name of the book is "Right on the Money." Appreciate it, Pat.

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