Is Adam Carolla paying his fair share?

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Is Adam Carolla paying his fair share?

Comedian fired up about higher taxes and overpaid actors

This is a RUSH transcript from "The O'Reilly Factor," December 10, 2012. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

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O'REILLY: Thanks for staying with us. I'm Bill O'Reilly. In the "Rolling' With Carolla" segment tonight, we've got three hot topics, beginning with the rich paying their fair share in taxes.

Adam Carolla joins us now from Los Angeles. Before we get to that, you know, you're kind of looking like a slim Mr. French with that beard. You know, Sebastian Cabot. It's very dignified, Carolla, wow. I'm telling you.

ADAM CAROLLA, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Very timely, very timely reference.

(LAUGHTER)

I'd like to think of myself as a fat James Brolin, not a thin Sebastian Cabot. But that's just me looking at the beard as half-thin.

O'REILLY: You know, I think, with that beard though, you could go to Taco Bell and they might hire you now because of just the presence behind the counter.

(LAUGHTER)

CAROLLA: Thanks for the plug for my book, Bill.

O'REILLY: All right, fair share. You're a rich guy now -- fair share in taxes. Now, I think, your state is up to about 14 percent state income tax.

President Obama wants to raise it up to about 40 percent Federal. That's 54 percent. If he knocks out the deduction for state income taxes which he wants to do, you'd be paying 54. What's fair.

CAROLLA: Well, first off, we should stop saying, "tax the rich," and say, "tax the successful." Because I'm not rich, I'm successful. And rich is easy to tax because that's just the guy who inherited daddy's money, whose dad was the Monopoly man and he lives up on the hill.

I'm successful, you're successful because we worked our tails off. And it's harder to take money away from people that work very hard for it.

And it's very easy to say, "Tax the rich." But, really, it should be "Tax the successful." But I've done the math.

O'REILLY: Yes, Miller says that, too. And Miller is mad. I mean, he's angry about it because he's saying, "Look, I'm getting targeted, me, Dennis Miller, because I have achieved something."

So, it's really, it is taxing the successful. But it's also taxing achievement. And, to some extent, rewarding non-achievement what it is.

CAROLLA: I get along with Dennis great. I saw him just the other day. Unfortunately, our beards started fighting, so we can't be in the same room anymore.

O'REILLY: Yes, you've got to take it away. Absolutely.

CAROLLA: I can do some quick math for you. Because the Federal budget is $3.8 billion, or I should say, trillion dollars, I know that the population is about 314 million --

O'REILLY: Right.

CAROLLA: -- people in the United States, so your fair share, I mean, everyone needs to pay $12,076. I have two kids and a wife at home, so my nut would be $48,304. That would be my fair share.

Now, I'm willing to round up to $48,500 and then be heralded as a hero in my community, right.

(LAUGHTER)

O'REILLY: No. You've got to pay more.

CAROLLA: No? Bill, it's really like this --

O'REILLY: And here's why -- and here's why you've got to pay more --

CAROLLA: -- it's like gas is $3 a gallon. The average person pays $3 a gallon for gas. Some people get gas for free. I pay $30 a gallon, and I'm a schmuck?

I'm supposed to be looked down upon. How about we take the people that don't pay anything for gas and get them to pay something for gas because we all drive the same roads.

O'REILLY: We can't. That's too judgmental. This is a good example of where we are. Put this guy's picture up. Corey Curtis, Racine, Wisconsin, father of nine.

All right, there's Corey. Father of nine, OK. He's behind in his child support by $100,000. He's got six mothers on the nine children. And a judge in Racine, Wisconsin has ordered Mr. Curtis not to have any more children. And it's Judge Boyle.

Now, I know, the ACLU is going to come up and go, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait, wait!" But who's supporting those nine children that this guy won't support. Carolla and O'Reilly and Miller. Here we go.

CAROLLA: That's right.

O'REILLY: That's what's supporting them, right here. It's about responsibility. I mean, we have every color, every religion doing this kind of stuff.

But, in this country, the Corey Curtises of the world -- and I'm so happy this Judge Boyle held him accountable.

They, basically, like they skate through life, "Yes, I'll have nine kids by six different women and I won't pay for them. Hey, see you later. I'm going to the saloon or I'm going to the game."

And who's going to pay? Here we are. Hey. Hi.

CAROLLA: Not only are we going to pay today, we're going to pay tomorrow and the next day when these kids get into trouble and get into the system because they didn't have a father figure to discipline them.

So, it's not just how much -- it's not the lunch we're paying for today, it's prison and rehab and unemployment that we can look forward to in the future because that, statistically, is where these kids are heading.

O'REILLY: Absolutely. And that's why society has got to stop with this sympathy and crying. There are some people who do need help. Those children certainly do.

And I'm more than happy to help those children. But, that guy, he should be in jail some place.

CAROLLA: No, his junk should be put in a wood chipper. And, Bill, can I just say this.

O'REILLY: Yes.

CAROLLA: We don't judge enough as a society. We look down more upon on smokers than we do deadbeat dads. And that's not a good thing.

O'REILLY: All right, Adam Carolla. And, by the way, tomorrow, we will be in Washington where I'll be talking with Charles Krauthammer about what he thinks is fair taxation.

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