WASHINGTON -- House Republicans spent hours behind closed doors on Saturday crafting a government-funding bill stuffed with unrelated provisions on Obamacare and contraception. In the meantime, Democrats whiled away the time by doing something far more entertaining: watching "The Daily Show" TV host Jon Stewart make fun of Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas).
House Democratic caucus chairman Xavier Becerra (D-Calif.) opened a caucus meeting with a clip of Stewart reacting in disbelief to the fact that Cruz read aloud the Dr. Seuss classic Green Eggs and Ham during his 21-hour talk-a-thon on the Senate floor earlier this week in protest of Obamacare.
In the segment, Stewart wonders aloud why Cruz chose that particular Dr. Seuss book to trash Obamacare given its moral. "To express your opposition to Obamacare, you go with a book about a stubborn jerk who decides he hates something before he's tried it?" Stewart said to laughter. "And when he finally does get a taste, he has to admit after tasting it, 'this is pretty f*cking good.'"
Stewart then read aloud from what he called his favorite Dr. Seuss book, "the slightly lesser known tale of 'The Bore-Ax.'" It's not actually a Dr. Seuss book, but a "Daily Show" creation. Stewart held up the book, which featured a cartoonish image of Cruz on the cover, and began reading the tale of Cruz's disdain for Obamacare:
"In the land of D.C., in the Senate of snooze,
lived the showboat-iest blab whose name was Ted Cruz.
Ted talked about health care, compared it to Nazis
As comparisons go, he was off by a lot-sy.
Health care, he said, would end this great nation
A point made after hours of mouth masturbation.
Repeal it! Defund it! Erase it! Deny it!
Murder it! Skull f*ck it! Bread and deep-fry it!
Cruz claimed freedom and liberty, but it was all a big show
Because he could have spent time making sure the law didn't blow."
The segment helped lighten the mood amid tensions over a potential government shutdown, according to Democrats who were in the room.
"It was so funny," said one aide. "A lot of laughter."
"The most useful part of the meeting," said one Democratic lawmaker. Another congresswoman said she missed the meeting, but heard it was "hysterical."
Becerra told The Huffington Post he decided to play the clip because when he saw it on the Comedy Central network earlier in the week, he couldn't think of a better way to sum up the current mess in Congress.
"It illustrates best the absurdity of the tea party dysfunction," Beccera said. "Jon Stewart was spot on, talking about how absurd and contradictory Sen. Cruz was in his presentation. In less than 10 minutes, Jon Stewart laid it out as good as I've seen it in terms of what we're facing with this obstruction and dysfunction."
You can watch "The Daily Show" clip above.
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