Late-night TV hosts talked about the dramatic reveal of Trump’s new healthcare program, claiming: “We’re all going to die.”
On The Daily Show, Trevor Noah also spoke about Ben Carson’s disastrous first speech as secretary of Housing and Urban Development, in which he referred to slaves as immigrants who worked hard for less.
Tonight at 11/10c, Ben Carson tries to walk back his comparison of slaves to immigrants seeking a better life. pic.twitter.com/p68HD89gcY
— The Daily Show (@TheDailyShow) March 8, 2017
After widespread criticism for his comments, he later suggested that people needed to check the dictionary definition of immigrant. Noah took him to task and shared his findings: a person who comes to a country to take up permanent residence.
“Firstly, slaves weren’t considered people, they were considered property,” he said. “Secondly, they didn’t come to America, they were brought here by force. Eddie Murphy came to America. Kunta Kinte was brought. Big difference, people.”
On The Late Show, Stephen Colbert also took time to ridicule Carson, saying he would also probably refer to Jews in Egypt as “pyramid interns”.
He went on to discuss the reveal of Trump’s alternative to the Affordable Care Act, which is estimated to cover 20 million fewer people. He joked: “Twenty million fewer then Obama, pretty rough. That sounds like Trump’s inauguration.”
He then claimed the only person who would be happy about the changes was Death, who came on to dance with Colbert. After he left, Colbert said: “Where was I? Oh yeah, we’re all gonna die.”
He also spoke about the bizarre amount of space given to the rule denying Medicaid to lottery winners. “If anything, Trump should empathize with people who are handed a bunch of money they didn’t earn,” he said.
There is also a lack of estimated cost for the program. “So this bill’s going to be like those fancy restaurants where they don’t have what it costs on the menu,” Colbert said.
He then talked about Jason Chaffetz, “Utah congressman and captain of the bad team in The Mighty Ducks” who said that people need to reconsider buying a new iPhone as they should be focusing their funds on their health instead.
“The average cost of health insurance for a family is $25,000, so poor folks, just stop buying 33 iPhones every year,” Colbert said. “It’s that simple.”
He also played footage from Sean Spicer’s press briefing, at which Spicer demonstrated that the new healthcare program as written is considerably shorter than the previous one. “When it comes to writing anything down, shorter is always better,” he said. “That’s why Moby Dick is much worse than the instruction book that comes with your rice cooker.”
On Jimmy Kimmel Live!, the host also took aim at Spicer, referring to him as the “White House stress secretary”.
He also questioned his strange obsession with comparing the size of both programs. “So let me get this straight: small hands bad, small crowds bad, small stack of papers good,” he said. “It’s like he’s writing Melissa McCarthy’s sketches for her.”
Finally, he referred to Chaffetz’s iPhone comments, joking: “But if I give up my phone for health insurance, how will I call 911?”
