Comedy Central’s Jon Stewart devoted almost all of his last show of the year to ripping into Republican senators for blocking a bill that would help 9/11 first responders.

House Resolution 847, the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act of 2010, would provide $7 billion in benefits to workers that responded to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Many of those workers are now experiencing health problems such as cancer, heart disease and respiratory disease.

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The bill is “win-win-win-win,” Stewart said Thursday. “Just fucking do it!”

As the lame duck session began, all 42 GOP senators signed a letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid promising to prevent a vote on any legislation until the Bush-era tax cuts had been extended for every American, including those that make over $250,000 a year.

The next week, Republicans staged a successful filibuster to keep the Zadroga bill from coming up for a vote.

Congress approved an extension of the Bush-era tax cuts and Obama was expected to sign it on Dec. 17, but there was still no plan to vote on HR 847.

ABC, CBS and NBC have yet to even mention 9/11 responders during their nightly news coverage of the lame duck session.

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“This is a job for Fox News, the nation’s leading source of 9/11-based outrage,” Stewart declared.

But the only Fox News analyst to cover the Zadroga bill conveniently omitted that Republicans were holding up its passage.

Stewart noted that the only network that fully covered the topic was Al-Jazeera.

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“Our networks were scooped with a sympathetic Zadroga Bill story by the same network Osama bin Laden sends his mix-tapes to!” Stewart exclaimed. “This is insane!”

This video is from Comedy Central’s The Daily Show, broadcast Dec. 16, 2010.

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In part two, Stewart talks to first responders with health problems.