Ted Cruz, Jon Stewart clash over PACT Act that would aid veterans suffering from burn pit ailments

In a recent interview, Cruz claimed Democrats were playing a "budgetary trick" with the bill, which he previously voted in favor of in June. "They took $400 billion in discretionary spending and they shifted it to mandatory," he said. "The reason they did that is they want to spend $400 billion more discretionary funds on completely unrelated matters, so it is just part of the out of control spending from the left." 

On Friday, Stewart, who joined veterans and activists in support of the bill in Washington, D.C. last week, made a video debunking Cruz's reasons for opposing the bill, calling them "inaccurate" and "bullsh-t."

"He's pretending that this is some new thing that the Democrats pulled out, stuck into the bill and snuck it past one Ted Cruz," Stewart said. "It's nonsense. There is nothing in the bill that is not related to veteran spending."

In response to Stewart, Cruz tweeted along with a video: "You're wrong here. The bill gives a $400B blank check—separate from vets care—for unrelated pork that will supercharge inflation. I support the PACT Act & the $679.4B it would dedicate to vets. It's [people] trying to use PACT to shovel more pork who are exploiting vets." 

This prompted a thread from Stewart, who accused Cruz of "trying to rally the forces of misinformation to try and kill more vets." The comedian asked Cruz to provide evidence of what unrelated spending was snuck into the PACT Act after his initial vote in support of the measure. 

Cruz has yet to respond. However, Stewart continued his attacks against the Republican in an appearance Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press." He told moderator Chuck Todd: "The bill that Ted Cruz voted 'yes' on had the exact same funding provisions as the bill he voted no on. It's the exact same bill. None of this makes any sense."

Stewart also once again pushed back on Cruz's claims that the bill is a "budgetary trick" by Democrats.

"That's just a word salad that he's spewing into his coffee cup on his way to God knows where as veterans sit in Washington, D.C. and the sweltering heat, demanding that they pass this legislation that they have been fighting for, for 15 years," Stewart said. "Anybody can say anything. We can say Elvis Presley is still alive. But at some point we all have to live in reality and what he is saying is just factually incorrect."