House

Stewart: ‘Hallelujah’ for budget deal

Wednesday’s budget deal left “The Daily Show” host Jon Stewart stunned as the comedian last night praised Congress for its ability to compromise.

{mosads}”Deal? Deal?” asked the Comedy Central host. “What type of witchcraft is this?”

To a resounding “Hallelujah” chorus, Stewart laid out some of the details of the two-year agreement hashed out by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.).

Commenting on the stark height difference between Ryan and Murray, Stewart ribbed the senator and representative for not being able to see eye-to-eye on prior budget crises.

“Oh my God, these two members of Congress are literal visual analogs for how the two sides can’t see eye-to-eye,” Stewart said. “They are a life-size bar graph of the fiscal distance between the parties.”

Stewart went on to note that the Ryan-Murray deal would set government spending at just over $1 trillion for 2014 and 2015 — a number between what Democrats and Republicans wanted.

“So it took you guys three years and a government shutdown to come up with, ‘I don’t know, why don’t we split the difference?'” Stewart asked.