Presidential hopeful Roseanne Barr lays out platform on 'Hannity'

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Roseanne for president?

Actress and 2012 candidate on her White House bid

This is a rush transcript from "Hannity," September 24, 2012. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

SEAN HANNITY, HOST: Tonight, "The Anointed One" is in town right here in New York City on the eve of his speech to the United Nations General Assembly. While the White House has yet to schedule a single meeting with any world leaders this trip, the president was able to find time to sit down with the ladies "The View."

Now that interview will air tomorrow, exactly two weeks after a terrorist attack claimed the lives of our ambassador to Libya and three other Americans. Now perhaps President Obama should revisit his priorities.

Joining me now to talk about that and much more is the Peace and Freedom Party's 2012 presidential nominee, the author of "Roseannearchy: Dispatches From the Nut Farm," the always outspoken and entertainer, Roseanne Barr. How are you?

ROSEANNE BARR, PEACE AND FREEDOM PARTY: Hi. I'm good. Thank you for having me on your show.

HANNITY: I watched you years ago when you did standup. Then you had this major hit television program. Should I take -- is this to be taken seriously or -- do you really want to be elected president of the United States?

BARR: Yes. I'm very, very serious. I say I'm the only serious comedian in the presidential race. And I'd like to take this opportunity to ask both Romney and Obama to debate me. Because I think that both of those guys -- I think that the American people are being given a false choice, because the choice between the lesser of two evils is a false choice. It's not an actual choice.

I think that Peace and Freedom and solutions, economic solutions, that -- that involve investment in our own country first are the things that I offer and that I want to talk about.

So I think, yes, I'm very, very serious. And, you know, I would like people to incorporate these ideas in this election cycle, such as --

HANNITY: You're running as a socialist?

BARR: Well, I'm running on the Peace and Freedom Party, and part of - - I do think we do need a little bit more socialism in this country this time. We need to move stuff from the top to the middle and the bottom, because it keeps on staying at the top. How you build the middle class is bring stuff from the top down to the middle. And people deserve something back for the taxes they pay.

HANNITY: All right, so, for example, we now have a tax system. These are just facts -- 10 percent pays almost 70 percent of the federal income tax bill. Is there a limit in terms of the wealth that you would put on people?

In other words, would you say after X number of dollars, you've got to -- the government's going to confiscate your wealth? How much out of every dollar should the highest tax individuals be able to keep? Should they be able to keep 50 cents of every dollar, 60, 20?

BARR: Well, I think we should have a fair tax. I think that all of this stuff is a big dialog that we need to have. I know that I pay 48 percent of my income to taxes. You know, I wouldn't mind so much if it wasn't going just to export war. If it was actually going to help the people of the United States, I would gladly pay more.

HANNITY: Would you disarm America? Would you unilaterally disarm?

BARR: Absolutely not. I'm not a pacifist. You know, I would just -- I think that when war is wedge for profit we're in trouble. I do think that that's the corner our country has been back into.

You know, with all these privatizing of prisons, privatizing of military, I don't think that's a good idea. I think most Americans agree with me, that the people themselves, you know, the taxpayers and the people of this -- of this country, the citizens, we need to have our government back so that it's not just a government of lobbyists and special interests.

HANNITY: All right, obviously -- I wasn't sure who to expect tonight, because I know you're very funny, you're a comedian, an actress. And I've been following your campaign on the periphery, preparing for this interview with you tonight.

I wasn't sure who was going to show up. You say you want to be taken seriously. You've thought about these issues, laying out your ideas. How can people do that, though -- I'll put up on the screen just three of your tweets, for example, because they're very hard hitting.

BARR: Uh-oh.

HANNITY: Well, OK, well, for example, one says most billionaires are violent pedophiles and consumers of violent pedo-porn and they got a kick out of being heartless and cruel and empty cocaine addicts.

You talk about smarmy Mitt who has lived off the government his whole life and grown rich from entitlements and tax welfare comes out of the racial closet.

Anyone who eats blank Fil-A deserves to get cancer and that is sure to come from eating andibiotic filled tortured chickens for Christ.

How do you get taken seriously when you call billionaires pedophiles and -- Mitt Romney hasn't worked for the government his whole life.

BARR: Yes. He's always worked for the government. He's always been on the government dole. He's been a politician for 150 years.

HANNITY: He worked for Bain Capital.

BARR: What?

HANNITY: Bain Capital.

BARR: Exporting our jobs, taking our jobs from away our country and sending them --

HANNITY: That didn't happen when he was there, Roseanne.

BARR: It most certainly did.

HANNITY: No. Look what he did with Staples, with Sports Authority.

BARR: Let me answer what you said before.

HANNITY: OK.

BARR: Yes. I like to get people talking. I am a provocateur, and I do like getting on Twitter and riling people up. You know what, after a while some sane dialog and sane conclusions come of that kind of thing. You know, I think it's a good thing. A lot of people have also said that I'm letting the billionaires off easy.

HANNITY: Letting the billionaires off easy by --

BARR: Yes, because they are responsible for all the problems on our planet.

HANNITY: Billionaires are -- think of what -- look, you're too intelligent to say that. Let me be honest with you.

BARR: OK.

HANNITY: You are too smart to be saying some of these things, if you're serious, that you want to be taken seriously and want to run for the presidency, billionaires are not the problem.

I never got a job in my whole life -- and I started washing dishes at 12 -- from a poor person. I never looked at rich people and said, I have a right to your house, your car.

It seems that you're playing this game, throwing out these broad sweeping generalizations. I think if you do that, my humble opinion, you won't be taken seriously.

BARR: Well, there is a serious class war going on in our country, and I'm trying to underline it and bring it to the mainstream media who all but ignores it. There is a war on poor people by rich people in this country, and it really should be looked at and our class system as well as our cast system should be analyzed and taken part and really, really looked at.

All this redistribution of wealth went up, there was a huge redistribution of wealth, which you say you're against, but it up off and you don't have any problem --

HANNITY: The bottom 49 percent don't pay federal income tax.

BARR: Well, that's why we need to look at our income tax laws and get fair tax and redo our system from the bottom up.

HANNITY: All right, Roseanne for president, thank you for being with us.

BARR: Thank you.

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