Jon Stewart Slams Sen. Rand Paul For Blocking 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund: “It’s Outrageous”

Comedian and activist Jon Stewart blasted Sen. Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) on Wednesday after he and another Republican lawmaker blocked a measure to extend the 9/11 Victims Compensation Fund.

“It’s absolutely outrageous,” Stewart said on Fox News, where he was joined by 9/11 first responder John Feal. 

Paul objected this week to 2020 Democratic presidential candidate and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand‘s (D-New York) effort to compel the Senate to approve House-passed legislation to reauthorize funding for the first responders through the fiscal year 2090 by unanimous consent. If this bill isn’t passed, compensation for the first responders would likely run out by the end of this year. The Kentucky Republican said he was concerned by the United States’ increasing debt levels and stressed that cuts were essential to offset any major expenditures.

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Stewart noted that Paul backed the Republican Party and President Donald Trump‘s tax cuts that “added hundreds of billions of dollars to our deficit.”

“Now he stands up at the last minute, after 15 years of blood, sweat and tears from the 9/11 community, to say that it’s all over now. Now we’re going to balance the budget on the backs of the 9/11 first responder community,” Stewart added of Paul.

He continued: “He is a guy who put us in hundreds of billions of dollars in debt. And now he’s going to tell us that a billion dollars a year over 10 years is just too much for us to handle?

Last month, Stewart delivered an emotional speech to Congress advocating for extending funding to 9/11 firefighters, police officers and other first responders who continue to suffer long-term health effects from the fumes of the wreckage that engulfed the World Trade Center in New York City in 2001. The former Daily Show host also called out Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) after McConnell said he was confused as to why the comedian was “bent out of shape” over the issue.

Paul said he would be open to an amendment to the House bill regarding 9/11 first responders should it be brought to a vote in the Senate.