1. Congress gives gifts to Wall Street and big donors in last-minute spending bill.

Tucked into the last three pages of the so-called "cromnibus" 1,600-page spending bill in December was a provision, negotiated with the support of Republicans and Democrats, to dramatically raise the amount of money big donors can give to the national party committees. It will allow people to write checks for upwards of a million dollars every election cycle to their preferred party committees—nearly 20 times the average household income.

Importantly, many members of Congress fought back against the increase and listed it, as well as the Citigroup-written provision weakening Wall Street reforms, as the reason they voted against it. Jon Stewart, helpfully, tied the two provisions together, noting, "Obviously, I shouldn't insinuate that raising the personal donor limit to $324,000 is tantamount to pay back for increasing the banks profit," he said. "Really, any individual can give $324,000, say a Wall Street banker who benefited from this Congressional largesse or the local janitor who is looking to bankrupt himself."