John Oliver revealed on Sunday’s “Last Week Tonight” just how much power state representatives wield while Americans aren’t watching.
“Look, state legislatures are hilarious. There’s only one problem,” the HBO host began. “Increasingly, they’re the places where most legislation is actually taking place.”
While the U.S. Congress has only passed 185 laws this session, the satirist pointed out that state houses have passed over 24,000 bills.
Oliver then launched into an extended lecture on the influence of the local lawmakers on issues from abortion rights to environmental policy to gun control.
One additional player is the notorious “conservative bill mill,” the American Legislative Exchange Council.
“In fact, I’m going to list ALEC in the credits for our show as associate producer of creating-horrifying-things-for-us-to-talk-about,” he said.
“Great work, ALEC! See you at the end of season wrap party, you pieces of shit!”
The lesson: “All those conspiracy theories about a shadow government are actually true,” he said.
“Only it’s not a group of billionaires meeting in a mountain lair in Zurich, it’s a bunch of pasty bureaucrats meeting in a windowless committee room in Lansing, Michigan.”
Watch the clip below: