Comedian Jon Stewart ripped Sens. Rand Paul (R-KY) and Mike Lee (R-UT) on Wednesday night for holding up a bill that would extend the 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund for seven decades.
“Any new spending that we are approaching, any new program that’s going to have the longevity of 70, 80 years, should be offset by cutting spending that’s less valuable,” Paul said on the Senate floor earlier Wednesday. “We need to at the very least have this debate. I will be offering up an amendment if this bill should come to the floor but until then I will object.”
During an interview with Fox News host Bret Baier, Stewart gave a scathing response to Paul’s “outrageous” reason for blocking the bill, which will cost approximately $10.2 billion for the first decade.
“Pardon me if I’m not impressed in any way by Rand Paul’s fiscal responsibility virtue signaling,” Stewart retorted. “Rand Paul presented tissue paper avoidance of the $1.5 trillion tax cut that added hundreds of billions of dollars to our deficit, and now he stands up at the last minute after 15 years of blood, sweat, and tears from the 9/11 community to say that it’s all over now, now we’re going to balance the budget on the backs of the 9/11 first responder community.”
Stewart pointed out that Paul was the 51st vote on the tax cut.
“And now he’s going to tell us that a billion dollars a year over 10 years is just too much for us to handle?” Stewart asked incredulously.
Stewart also slammed Lee, the other opponent of the bill, for making the first responders of the 9/11 terrorist attacks “drag themselves back to Washington to put their hats in their hands and beg for something that this country should have done 14 years ago.”
Stewart’s been an outspoken advocate for the 9/11 first responders for years. His emotional congressional testimony in June forced Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) to take action on the nearly-depleted VCF.
Watch Stewart below:
Jon Stewart slams GOP Sens. Rand Paul and Mike Lee for blocking 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund pic.twitter.com/EEGONBYaVW
— TPM Livewire (@TPMLiveWire) July 18, 2019
