Jon Stewart has publicly blasted Republican Senator Rand Paul for objecting to an attempt to unanimously pass the bill funding 9/11 first responders’ health care on Wednesday, The Daily Beast reported.
The former Daily Show host and passionate advocate for the fund appeared on Fox News to shame Paul and dub his blocking of the bill “an abomination.”
The bipartisan bill would ensure a 9/11 victim’s compensation fund for the attacks never ran out of money.
Last month the measure was quickly approved for to a floor vote in the House and subsequently passed the lower chamber last week on an overwhelmingly bipartisan 402-12 vote.
On the Senate Floor on Wednesday, presidential candidate and Democratic Senator Kirsten Gillibrand of New York requested unanimous consent, which would allow a bill to skip several steps normally required to pass and therefore be passed unanimously, without senators needing to cast individual votes.
However, rather than agree to the unanimous passing, Sen. Paul of Kentucky objected.
He questioned the bill’s 70-year timeframe and pointed out that the federal government is already overwhelmed with debt — a $22 trillion debt , to be exact.
He argued that passing such a long-term bill like one concerning the compensation fund without offsetting the cost would only contribute to the national debt. As such, he objected to the bill’s passing.
“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.”
Fellow Republican Sen. Mike Lee of Utah also objected the bill. For his objection, he raised concerns about oversight of the fund to prevent fraud and abuse.
Following his objection, leaders of various firefighter unions, such as New York’s Uniformed Firefighters Association, camped outside in the hopes of questioning Lee’s last-minute hold-up, but were turned away by the senator’s staffers.
“If he’s not on board, we’d appreciate a reason why,” Gerald Fitzgerald, president of the UFA, said .
Sen. Gillibrand said she is “deeply disappointed” in Paul’s decision to object the bill.
After emotionally describing those first responders who this bill is meant to protect, she said, “We could pass this bill right now.”
“But instead,” she continued, “my colleague has objected, asking people to come back over and over. Everyone loves to point fingers in this place, where there’s nowhere else to point that finger today than this chamber.”
Following the bill’s blocking, Jon Stewart appeared on Fox News and publicly condemned Paul’s objection.
In an interview with Bret Baier, the visibly furious comedian called the objection “absolutely outrageous” and added, “Pardon me if I’m not impressed in any way by Rand Paul’s fiscal responsibility virtue signaling.”
Stewart pointed out that Paul supported President Trump’s $1.5 trillion tax cut that “added hundreds of billions of dollars to our deficit”.
Now, Paul is using that same debt to defend his decision not to support a bill for a life-saving compensation fund and is instead attempting to “balance the budget on the backs of the 9/11 first responder community.”
“At some point, we have to stand up for the people who have always stood up for us, and at this moment in time maybe cannot stand up for themselves due to their illnesses and their injuries,” Stewart said. “And what Rand Paul did today on the floor of the Senate was outrageous.”
Stewart then went on to take aim at the nation’s debt and what Sen. Paul has deemed “too much to handle.”
“You know, there are some things that they have no trouble putting on the credit card, but somehow when it comes to the 9/11 first responder community—the cops, the firefighters, the construction workers, the volunteers, the survivors—all of a sudden we’ve got to go through this.”
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Seated next to Stewart was 9/11 first responder and activist John Feal.
Feal thanked Baier and the Fox News station as a whole for being so “generous” with their time on this issue. Then he called Senators Paul and Lee “bottom-feeders” who he claim “lack humanity” and “lack leadership.”
Although angered by the senators’ objections, Feal said he is still confident the bill will pass when it goes to the floor for a straight vote.
“When we get this bill passed, we beat them again and we are going to walk out and we’re going to hold our chins up high and our chests out, and we’re going to say we beat Rand Paul and Mike Lee,” he said.
Stewart told Baier it’s survivors like Feal who deserve the right not to have to worry about financial burdens at the hands of the government.
Other survivors and first responders, like Feal, shouldn’t have to “drag themselves back to Washington, put their hats in their hands and beg for something that this country should have done 14 years ago,” he argued, adding “It’s an abomination.”
Stewart made headlines last month after appearing on Fox News to shame Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
During that appearance, Stewart condemned McConnell for failing to protect 9/11 first responders, saying that only “intense lobbying and public shaming” could make the Senate Majority Leader show compassion for 9/11 first responders. He said that the issue is not one of Republicans vs. Democrats.
“Not all Republicans oppose this, but everyone who has opposed it is a Republican,” he said. “And it’s unacceptable.”
h/t: The Daily Beast , CNN
