Jon Stewart artfully trolls Congress for its glee over finishing 'basic occupational tasks'
On Monday night's Daily Show, Jon Stewart gave one cheer for the bipartisan Medicare payment reform Congress passed last week, a mere 18 years after creating the problem in the first place. Oh good, he quipped, "you decided to fix it once your procrastination could legally vote." The bipartisan effort was a nice change, but the over-the-top back-patting was a little too much for Stewart. The result? Some pretty good mockery.
When President Obama offered to throw lawmakers a party for doing their job, Stewart jabbed: "They don't need a trophy for showing up — they're Congress, not millennials." He followed that up by borrowing a phrase from George W. Bush (and speechwriter Michael Gerson): "Talk about the soft bigotry of low expectations." Seriously, he added, "imagine if normal people reacted this way to the dutiful executing of basic occupation tasks." And the segment ends with just that, a look at how such self-congratulatory zeal might look in a New York deli. Watch. —Peter Weber
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
