Health Care Smackdown
Sometimes, Jon Stewart is at his best when he's wonking out. During a legendary smackdown interview with anti-health-reform activist Betsy McCaughey, Stewart showed he's just as smart and well read as he is hilarious. The policy-heavy interview was so captivating that only about half of it could fit into the show — the rest had to be posted on the Daily Show website.
McCaughey, who nearly single-handedly took down the Clinton health care plan 16 years ago with faulty analysis, was back at it again in August 2009, telling anyone who would listen that the Democratic health care plan was "deadly to seniors." (Her hyperbolic contentions were the genesis for the "death panel" lie spread that summer, which huge swaths of elderly Americans still believe is true.) But Stewart had no intention of letting McCaughey spread her misinterpretations on his show. The well-prepared host easily ticked off life-expectancy statistics, Medicare reimbursement policies, physician incentives and average health-insurance costs to beat back McCaughey's supposedly well-researched (and terrifying) claims about the health-reform bill. Stewart called her "dangerous" and said, "I like you, but I don't understand how your brain works."