Jon Stewart Wednesday finally stopped responding to the aftermath of his performance on "Fox News Sunday" and tried to make amends with a somewhat bipartisan segment bashing the President for his budget solutions as well as both parties for not getting anything done.
Toward the end of the opening "Daily Show" sketch, after a video clip of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid saying, "My Republican friends seem to be living in a fantasy world," Stewart smartly quipped, "If they were living in a fantasy world, would you still exist?" (video follows with transcript and commentary):
JON STEWART, HOST: Alright, well what are the Democrats counter-offering?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SENATOR CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NEW YORK): It almost makes you wonder if they aren't trying to slow down the economic recovery for political gain.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
STEWART: Oh, for God's sakes. Alright. So what do we have, till August 2nd before we hit Armageddon. Is there anything you guys agree on?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)
SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE JOHN BOEHNER (R-OHIO): I’m just not sure they’ve been dealing with reality.
SENATE MAJORITY LEADER HARRY REID (D-NEVADA): My Republican friends seem to be living in a fantasy world.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
Of course, the answer is, "NO!"
Unfortunately, in Stewart's attempt at bipartisan humor, he showed that he, his writers, and his producers are living in their own fantasy world.
Moments before the Reid joke, Stewart showed a clip of Boehner saying that tax hikes are off the table. He responded that since there are only two options to solving this problem, if you eliminate one, you're not really negotiating.
Somewhat after the Reid joke, Stewart and his team absurdly demonstrated that if either side exclusively got its way in this budget battle, Armageddon would ensue, and the world would become a horrible nuclear wasteland.
This, of course, is a false premise.
Our current budget woes would largely be solved by us going back to the spending levels we had in fiscal 2007 before the Democrats took over Congress. Do you remember the world at that time being a horrible nuclear wasteland?
As the answer again is "NO," even Stewart's attempts at bipartisan humor wreak of liberal bias.
America hasn't gotten into the position it's in by taxing its citizens too little.
Armageddon's approach so concerning to Stewart was caused by our elected officials for decades - and, in particular, since 2007 - spending like Armageddon was just around the corner and the future didn't matter.
To try to put this in perspective for the comedian, he is currently married with two children. Let's assume that up until recently, they were largely living within their means.
In 2007, Jon's wife and kids went on a HUGE spending binge as the economy softened and his income declined a little. Today they are spending almost 60 percent more than Stewart is earning, a condition they all agree can't go on forever.
Tracey and the kids want Jon to get another job to bring in more money so that they can mostly continue their lavish life style with very minor spending cuts.
Despite his liberal leanings, I think Jon's going to inform his family that he's currently working and making as much as he can, and that they need to immediately go back to what they were spending before.
If Stewart wasn't such a partisan hack, he'd be saying the exact same thing to Obama and the Democrats right now.
