Jon Stewart Takes On Obama, GOP's Proposed Budget Cuts (VIDEO)

On Wednesday night's "Daily Show," Jon Stewart took on Obama's new budget plan for 2012, his proposed cuts and the budget cuts the GOP would rather have made. To him, neither party seems to have the right idea.

President Obama's new budget, which calls for $3.8 trillion in spending, might not seem like much of a budget. But as Obama said in a press briefing, he also plans to save $1.1 trillion over 10 years by getting rid of government owned properties no longer in use. Unfortunately, that also means cuts to programs that benefit working, middle class families like Pell grants and home heating oil subsidies.

Stewart wasn't much more pleased with what conservatives have proposed to balance the budget: cuts to PBS, NPR, and Planned Parenthood among other services. Stewart started noticing a trend:

"At least both sides agree, our only way out of this mess is to cut programs that affect people who vote for Democrats."

However, there was one Republican at whom Stewart took specific aim: Senator Jeff Sessions, who slammed Obama's $1.1 trillion savings plan as "insignificant" and said that it "doesn't put us on the right track." That would be an interesting argument if he hadn't said on Fox News just recently that the GOP's plan to save the same amount over the same time span is "the way to get the budget balanced."

Tired of relying on our two-party system to balance the budget the right way, Stewart finally went all "Charles Grodin in 'Dave' on your a**," and broke out the green visor and adding machine to see what he could do about it.

WATCH:

The Daily Show - I Like Big Cuts
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Comments

[JLSR]

05:50 AM on 02/22/2011

Jon Stewart:
What has happened to you? I used to enjoy your show, your humor. Over the past year, you've gone so far out of your character to equate the Right with the Left, it has become sickening.Upon watching your show tonight, I noted that, first, you made fun of the 14 Democratic Senators who left WI for a very good reason. You never told your audience the reason, which was, that if those 14 Senators had stayed, the vote would have had to have taken place and the measure that the Gov., unfairly put forth, would have passed. Second, you showed almost every FOX News host demonizing the good people of WI, who don't wish to lose their right to negotiate in the future. Then to show the same thing happens on the Left, you showed Ed Schultz criticizing the tea party, in costume, for protesting the Health care plan. I think there is a big difference between criticizing those in the tea party, protesting the reform of Healthcare in this country and standing up for the teachers, prison guards, and other service personnel, covered by unions, who are afraid of losing their right to negotiate for benefits. It was almost like you, either, didn't fully understand what was going on in WI or you didn't care as long as you could equate the Right and the Left at all costs. I repeat:what has happened to you? You're not the Jon Stewart I once loved and respected.

[carol]

07:43 PM on 02/22/2011

JLSR. You wrote the comment I've been thinking about. Stewart is getting carried away with the need to have false equivalence...if he says something derogatory about conservatives, he has to balance it with something about liberals. He isn't worth staying up late for any more. He's like Obama...I thought he was an intelligent, informed liberal but his actions don't support that. Did he change? Was he pressured? Is he, like Obama, trying to reach the "centrists"? This isn't the Stewart I once knew.

[farmilyman]

06:39 AM on 02/21/2011

Why don't budget cuts ever affect the rich?

[johmich5]

03:24 PM on 02/20/2011

A 21 year old can balance his budget but Obama and the Fed can't? Stupid is as stupid does.

[Jack Tripperr]

05:35 PM on 02/18/2011

This is for all of you that have abandoned your support of Obama: It helped us when the tea-party caused losses in the last midterm elections. Now you are breaking unity with democrats because Obama wasn't a perfect superman. Now the help that stupid tea-party provided is offset by your disloyalty and as a result republicans will take over congress and the presidency. Congrats, due to your short-sightedness you have brought the return of the Bush years. Have a nice day

[Opening Shares]

06:40 PM on 02/18/2011

It's like milk past the expiration date, Obama may a day fresher but still has gone bad.

[Billy Fritts]

07:25 PM on 02/19/2011

Smells like rotten eggs--duhhhh

[cliffhammond]

03:35 AM on 02/19/2011

Obama is no better than a Republican and his foreign policy is dictated to him by the national security state, just like every other president since 1963. We really only have two choices in this country: conservative corporatists and way more conservative corporatists. The difference between Obama and John McCain turned out to be that Obama lied about who he represented.

[Stefan Bast]

09:35 AM on 02/19/2011

...and that John McCain was already at the verge of manufacturing a conflict with Russia, to have even more distraction from Americas problems.

[k man]

01:01 AM on 02/20/2011

Are you always so tough on a guy who is way in over his head?

[PathofTotality]

02:23 PM on 02/18/2011

So, on Feb 13th Mr. Sessions liked the Rep 1.1 trillion dollar cut but on Feb 14th he DIDN"T like the Dem 1.1 trillion dollor cut. Is there some new math I don't know about? Once again, the people that need to see this won't.

[SwimToCenter]

10:51 PM on 02/18/2011

No it's OLD math...called "two for me none for you."

[LMPE]

12:50 PM on 02/18/2011

Elementary, my dear Watson. Especially when talking about the Keebler Elf (aka Jeff Sessions).

[mheister]

03:26 AM on 02/18/2011

How about that sacred cow called Defense? At a trillion dollars (DoD + other defense expenditures buried in other parts of the budget), Defense easily takes more than 25% of the budget.

[Francois Bergeron]

03:20 PM on 02/19/2011

Especially when Gates himself says, please oh please cut the defense budget.

[LeftRight]

03:35 PM on 02/20/2011

Actually it takes more than 50% of the budget. Social Security and Medicare have their own complete budgets from revenues to expenditures.

[DonMadrid1500]

02:45 AM on 02/18/2011

Yeah, it will be much easier when the computers start making the decisions.

[VirginiaJeff]

11:23 PM on 02/17/2011

 
"At least both sides agree, our only way out of this mess is to cut programs that affect people who vote for Democrats."
 
Jon Stewart, once again you have summed up the problem perfectly.

[binxterdoodles]

09:28 AM on 02/18/2011

Aren't most government programs (aside from military) programs that affect people who vote for Democrats? Democrats like starting programs that take tax money and give people free stuff. So it makes sense that if you are cutting back on government spending that Dems will be upset.

[VirginiaJeff]

11:31 AM on 02/18/2011

No, most government  programs aren't the ones that affect Democratic voters. 
 
In addition to the homebuyers tax credit, which many Americans benefit from, the rich are given tax credits on their payments for vacation homes, yachts, and property they rent out.  One of my best friends, who's always moaning about breaks for the poor, owns a beach house who's value shot up from $170,000 to $500,000 in two years.  Why?  Because the beach it sat on suddenly qualified for sand restoration, which the government pays for every five years.
 
And don't be so quick to say, "aside from the military."  The Pentagon released a study a few years ago that estimated just the cost of protecting oil supply lines at billions of dollars each year.  That's a subsidy for Big Oil and its investors, for which they do not pay taxes.  In fact, the wealthy benefit disporportionately from a strong military as well as a strong police force.  Without those, they would be in greater danger of being attacked and robbed than the poor would be.
 
And don't forget Medicare, which the TeaPartiers were whining about when rumors spread that Obama was going to alter it.

[Stefan Bast]

09:39 AM on 02/19/2011

You mean, like agricultural and oil subsidies, or like weapon programs? You mean, like red states sucking off almost double the amount of money from Washington than blue states?

[Pekuliar316]

09:01 PM on 02/17/2011

His little eye shade skit summarized it very well. We all are screwed.

[Demarcus Jackson]

08:50 PM on 02/17/2011

why are they still printing the budget? Just put it online. It probably costs thousands of dollars to print it off.

[gcogs]

12:44 PM on 02/18/2011

What? Are you trying to kill jobs in the paper industry? lol I'm just being facetious

[Demarcus Jackson]

07:08 PM on 02/18/2011

:-)

[mojo filter]

08:15 PM on 02/17/2011

"At least both sides agree, our only way out of this mess is to cut programs that affect people who vote for Democrats."

Yet Republicans still talk about Obama like he's some socialist extremeist.

[LeftRight]

03:38 PM on 02/20/2011

Of course they do, because he's still SLIGHTLY to the left of them, and they want someone who will support their proposals enthusiastically and even propose stuff to the right of them!

[Marc Derrick Chua Yap]

08:09 PM on 02/17/2011

Never say one thing and say something to the contrary to it on another time/program

Jon Stewart will eat you alive for it!

[T4]

07:19 PM on 02/17/2011

at least Jon is moving his great wit back to the center a bit and slcing and dicing the absurdity of both parties. for a while there i thought had fallen into the Love Obama or Die faction. Glad to have you miving back to reality JOn - keep the skewer for these yahoos coming.

[history repeats]

03:35 AM on 02/18/2011

obama? i guess you missed the glaring republican hypocrite smack dab in the middle of that skit? because if it wasnt for these sorry excuses for LEADERS and their even SORRiER excuse for constituants we wouldnt have to worry about these RIDICULOUS debates between common sense and CRAZY!!

[LeftRight]

03:39 PM on 02/20/2011

No, he's ALWAYS been an equal opportunity kind of guy. You only THINK he was picking on Republicans more because the Republicans make more fodder for him to bust!

[AmyOMerkley]

06:56 PM on 02/17/2011

I thought the exposure of Jeff Sessions was outstanding. That's Jon's strength: exposing the hypocrisy and lies.

[TheBestPatriot]

07:50 PM on 02/17/2011

Who will expose Jon's hypocrisy?

[Donatella]

08:06 PM on 02/17/2011

Which is ....?

[Dogwithoutaleash]

08:07 PM on 02/17/2011

Go ahead, give it a shot. (If you can)