--- title: Jon Stewart Slams Rand Paul for Blocking 9/11 Victims Bill description: Jon Stewart slammed Rand Paul for blocking a bill that would ensure the September 11 Victims Compensation Fund never runs out of money. canonical: https://time.com/5629598/jon-stewart-rand-paul-911/ author: Megan McCluskey article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2019-07-18T17:19:53.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:59:36.595Z og:title: Jon Stewart Slams Rand Paul for Blocking 9/11 Victims Bill og:description: "I’m not impressed in any way by Rand Paul’s fiscal responsibility virtue signaling" og:url: https://time.com/5629598/jon-stewart-rand-paul-911/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1b9003e7cf892553/698a0037656a3f17e6bd89ce/jonstewartrandpaul.jpeg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: JonStewartRandPaul og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Jon Stewart Slams Rand Paul for Blocking 9/11 Victims Bill twitter:description: "I’m not impressed in any way by Rand Paul’s fiscal responsibility virtue signaling" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1b9003e7cf892553/698a0037656a3f17e6bd89ce/jonstewartrandpaul.jpeg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Jon Stewart Calls Rand Paul's Refusal to Back 9/11 Victim Funding an 'Abomination'  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Jul 18, 2019 5:19 PM UTC  YouTube  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Jul 18, 2019 5:19 PM UTC Just over a month after [Jon Stewart passionately called](https://time.com/5605021/john-stewart-september-11-victims-fund-congress/) for Congress to pass a bill ensuring that the [September 11 Victims Compensation Fund](https://time.com/5613357/9-11-first-responder-luis-alvarez-dies-jon-stewart/) never runs out of money, the former _Daily Show_ host is putting Rand Paul on blast for blocking the bill. Stewart appeared on Fox News on Wednesday to call the Republican senator out for objecting to the bill on the grounds that Congress needs to cut spending elsewhere before extending funding for 9/11 first responders. Stewart, a longtime advocate for 9/11 responders, called Paul’s refusal to back the bill an “abomination,” citing the senator’s willingness to previously support tax cuts that added “hundreds of billions” to the deficit. “It’s absolutely outrageous,” Stewart told host Bret Baier. “And pardon me if I’m not impressed in any way by Rand Paul’s fiscal responsibility virtue signaling. Rand Paul presented tissue paper avoidance of the $1.5 trillion tax cut that added hundreds of billions of dollars to our deficit. And 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.” Paul took to Twitter on Wednesday to claim that he was not blocking the bill, but “simply asking for a vote on an amendment to offset the cost.” > [](https://twitter.com/RandPaul/status/1151593436639879168) Watch the full Stewart clip below. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5629598/jon-stewart-rand-paul-911/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5629598/jon-stewart-rand-paul-911/"},"headline":"Jon Stewart Calls Rand Paul's Refusal to Back 9/11 Victim Funding an 'Abomination'","datePublished":"2019-07-18T17:19:53.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:59:36.595Z","description":"\"I’m not impressed in any way by Rand Paul’s fiscal responsibility virtue signaling\"","url":"https://time.com/5629598/jon-stewart-rand-paul-911/","keywords":["Newsfeed","celebrities","Rand Paul","9/11","Jon Stewart","fox news","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1b9003e7cf892553/698a0037656a3f17e6bd89ce/jonstewartrandpaul.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Megan McCluskey","jobTitle":"Staff Writer","url":"https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1b9003e7cf892553/698a0037656a3f17e6bd89ce/jonstewartrandpaul.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"JonStewartRandPaul","caption":"Jon Stewart slams Rand Paul","creditText":"YouTube","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5629598/jon-stewart-rand-paul-911/","name":"Jon Stewart Calls Rand Paul's Refusal to Back 9/11 Victim Funding an 'Abomination'"}}]}] ```