It’s obviously Congress’ August recess when comedian Stephen Colbert devotes an entire episode of ‘The Colbert Report‘ to being stiffed by Daft Punk and ‘The Daily Show‘ fill-in host John Oliver does a segment on — that’s right — tax reform.
On Tuesday night’s episode of the show, Oliver surprisingly spent about 10 minutes pointing out flaws in the tax system and calling for reform. He likened the code — with its provisions and loopholes — to an old refrigerator that has been stuffed full of food and never cleaned.
“Now the thing smells so bad you don’t even want to touch it,” Oliver said. “That is America’s current tax code: An old refrigerator full of rotted food.”
Oliver said that politicians don’t want to touch the issue because they are worried their reform ideas might leak out, anger the base that got them elected and jeopardize their future, more lucrative careers as lobbyists. He mocked pundits and politicians for calling the tax code — and every other major problem in Washington — the electrified “third rail” in American politics.
“It’s like America’s political system is built entirely out of third rails,” the host joked.
The Brit noted that about half of Washington lawmakers nowadays move on to be lobbyists, compared to only about 3 percent in the 1974.
“I never thought I’d say this, but Washington really had so much more integrity back in the Watergate era,” he sighed.
Watch the clips below:
