Last night's segment on the "smaller outrage" that is the announced plan to ask our military veterans to use their private insurance to cover combat related injuries won't garner the ire of the AIG bonus baby bailout or the hype of last week's tete-a-tete with Jim Cramer, but Daily Show host Jon Stewart made sure to say his piece about the matter, and, chances are, it's even dearer to his heart than beating up CNBC on a daily basis.
"You know veterans? Men and women who risk their lives protecting our country?," Stewart asked, explaining, "When they get injured, you know who foots the bill? You. The taxpayer. I know! It's incredibly FAIR. COMPLETELY AND TOTALLY FAIR." That led to a segment called "That Can't Be Right," in which Stewart ridiculed the Obama plan, saying: "I guess what the government is saying is that if you still need a little bit of rehab from when you got your leg blown off in Iraq, the government will cover you...unless your wife has a little COBRA left over from her previous substitute teaching gig, in that case, you're going to have to go with her and the deductible and the whole thing. Unless your spouse in in Congress, and then you can go with their sweet, sweet government plan."
Stewart offered his own cost-saving ideas, like medals with product placement and turning Arlington Cemetery into a water park, but I think that Stewart summed up his position with concision and clarity when he stated: "WHAT THE FUCK WERE YOU GUYS THINKING?"
Stewart knows of what he speaks. The comedian has logged a significant number of hours visiting wounded vets and listening to their war experiences. His work in that arena has garnered him recognition from the USO, who gave him a Merit Award for his work almost a year ago.
In related news, The Colbert Report also led off last night's broadcast with the news that the show will be hitting the road with the USO, to visit troops at an undisclosed "Persian Gulf" location, at an undisclosed date.
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