NY Daily News – July 05, 2015
Truth to power After more than 16 years on “The Daily Show,” Jon Stewart ends his run next month on a very high note.
Stewart is again demanding that Congress fund medical coverage and financial assistance to 9/11 first responders. It was Stewart’s righteously inspired advocacy in 2010 that helped pass the original bill. Hosting the bill’s primary sponsor, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, he opened up last week:
“Let’s talk about 9/11, because that one makes me so mad I can’t even think straight. . . . More (cops) have died since 9/11 from being on the Pile — from those diseases — than 9/11. . . . Insane.
“What is the resistance with just extending this bill in perpetuity like they did with the miners with black lung, like they’ve done with people that were exposed to radiation in nuclear tests? What is the problem? . . . Outrageous on many levels.
“When you are dealing with illness, whether it be a cancer or respiratory or even PTSD, the last thing you need to be doing is having to plop down to Washington to advocate. So we’re forcing them to be in a position where they have to be their own best advocates to the people of the government, who should be the ones advocating.
“Who is against this? Give me a name. Honestly, it’s time to just take the covers off. It’s time — and pardon me — this is such bulls–t, it’s insane.
“Who is it in the Congress who would be against this? I want their names. . . . There are real sitting senators who are blocking this. What are their names?
“We are not letting this go this time, because this one, honestly, is the most galling example of a legislature removed from the purpose of their job, and from the patriotism flag that they wave so heartily when it serves their needs.
“Let’s schedule a ritual shaming. . . . That’s something that we should schedule, and I promise to do it from my blog or whatever. . . . The idea that there is pushback on these no-brainers.”
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