Stephen Colbert calmly eviscerates Pentagon, Congress over clawed-back troop bonuses

America has a $19 trillion national debt, but "finally, someone's taking action to reduce the debt," Stephen Colbert said on Wednesday's Late Show, and he didn't mean that in a good way. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan "cost an estimated $4.8 trillion," comprising a good bit of that debt, he said, kicking off his "Werd" segment on the Pentagon's move to claw back millions in re-enlistment bonuses wrongly paid to California National Guard troops who then served in Iraq and Afghanistan.

After literally "losing" $9 billion in cash in one day in Iraq, the Pentagon is now demanding $100 million from these troops, and to add insult to injury, they're tacking on a 1 percent processing fee, Colbert said. "Congratulations, military, you've somehow made me feel good about my credit card company." Defense Secretary Ash Carter said Wednesday that the collections would be suspended, but he added that the Pentagon will "respect our important obligation to the taxpayer," and Colbert wasn't impressed. "Oh good, because what really upset taxpayers about Iraq was the part where we paid our soldiers what we promised," he said. "No WMDs? That's an honest mistake. A private doesn't fill out his paperwork? We will chase you to the gates of hell!"

Carter can't actually do much about this, Colbert said, because only Congress can change the relevant law. But Congress has known about this for two years and done nothing. "Come on, Congress, two years?" he said, winding up. "It should be easy to forget the troops' debt, because we have apparently forgotten the debt we owe them." Watch the Werd below. Peter Weber

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