You. My name is jon stewart. One of our guests tonight author reza aslan is on the program this evening. Well pick off where we left off last night with the United States congress. If you tuned in you might have seen this how this, the 113th congress is perhaps the Worst Congress [ laughter ] in the history of not just this nation [laughter] so we thought we would check in on what todays congressional bleep ry was what do they do today . Pass a resolution demanding preapproval of all president ial handshakes . [laughter] refuse to vote on anything except whether to add cronuts to the congressional brunch. [laughter] sitting around saying that sax by chambliss is an acceptable name. Its not. Its not okay. Its just not okay. [laughter] my apologies to apologies to ths family. What is congress up to . Congress may be ready to call a truce in the budget wars. A bipartisan budget deal has been reached to avoid another Government Shutdown. [ laughter ] [laughter] jon deal . Deal . What type of witchcraft is this . Deal . The elders have spoken of such wonders but i thought like the yelty it belonged to like the yeti it belonged to legend. If this be true, it be incredible. May it be . Could it is . We have a deal. Hallelujah jon thats it just two . Do we have any almost a hallelujah moment here. Its not the grand bargain many were hoping for. Jon i knew it. So the hallelujah for this moment is not of the handle variety or of the handel variety or the Leonard Cohen variety. The melan collie one mel then the donkey was beside himself. [ laughter ] anyway, my point is this the budget compromise is that kind of melancholy hal hallelujah is good. Its a breath of fresh air. Not used to using that c word compromise. Jon i country believe those bleep cworded. [ laughter ] yes, i cant believe those bleep cworded. I hope my mother isnt watching. How did this deal go down. Republican paul ryan and patty murray announce they had reached a deal tuesday after two months of negotiations. Jon oh, my god. These two members of congress are visual analogs for how the two sides cannot see eye to eye. They are a lifesize bar graph of the fiscal distance between the parties. Thats [laughter] and and quite frankly [ applause ] if i may be so bold, the two of them look like all my prom pictures in reverse. [laughter] so the important thing is oh. [ laughter ] aw, the jew fro. Those were the days. Lets hear it. What does this deal they did do . This bill reduces the deficit by 23 billion. It does not raise taxes. It cuts spending in a smarter way. The deal sets government funding levels athe just over 1 at just over 1 trillion for 2014 and 2015 right between what democrats and republicans wanted. Jon it took you guys three years and a Government Shutdown to come up with i dont know why dont we split the difference. Even the basic compromises is too much for some. Ill reserve judgment until we read it. I can tell you my ball based on press reporting. My budget feels it will make it harder for my feeling is it will make it harder for americans to achieve the american dream. Jon it is destroying america. Im going reserve my judgment but it bleep sucks. When was the last time we even had a budget . The last Time Congress passed an actual budget was april 29, 2009. That was 1687 days ago. Back then a gallon of gas cost a little more than 2. President obama has been in office just 100 days. Its been a while but easy on the nostalgia friend. It was four years ago. Jump in the way back machine with me as we head for 2009. Taylor swift topped the charts as she still does but with a different album and americans flocked by the millions to see as hugh jackman as wolverine. Unlike this year when millions flocked to see him in the wolverine. [laughter] some people are not happy but its been so long since we knew what compromise was to feel like. The democrats weighing in saying its not perfect but they can live with it. Jon exactly. Theres knoll victory. Theres no sense of glory. Its like being in a bar at last call. The lights come on and you look at each other and say, well, if we could do any better, we wouldnt be here so lets go bleep behind a sonic. [ laughter ] i thought in that laugh there was a bit of a rueful note. We go to senior Political Correspondent john oliver. John jon, what a day. [cheers and applause] joy to the world, jon. What an amazing wonderful, glorious day this is here in washington, d. C. Jon its a good day. Its nice. Its what . Its nice, jon . Gelato is nice. Tom hanks is nice. Tom hanks gelato is disgusting but thats not the point. This is everybody weve been waiting for. Jon not everything. Its the whale jumping over the kid at the end of free willie and not getting a drop of water on him, jon, not a drop. Jon john, the kid is getting soaks. Not a drop of water, jon. Its the deal its charlie bucket inheriting an entire factory full of chocolate and slaves. [laughter] were either of those moments just nice to you, jon . Jon is it like et going home . Its not like that, jon . How is letting an alien escape with all the secrets to the universe held within his one easily severed finger a triumph. That was a disaster. Think of Scientific Research we let fly away. Jon it was a movie about friendship overcoming obstacles. Your wrong youre wrong. Look, jon, my argument here [laughter] jon he we let a child let him escape. You are wrong. The point is, jon. Im saying on the scale of miraculous congressional achievements this budget bill ranks up there with the Civil Rights Act and a 90 incouple againstcy rate. Jon its a modest, a modest, lets just not shut the government down for a couple years and try to figure this out. Jon, you are not recognizing the distance the two sides had to travel to that. You dont understand where they started just two months ago. Let me read to you, jon, from the congressional record of their first meeting. Jon please. Please do this. Day one of negotiations. Hey bleep . We start things on time around here. [ laughter ] oh, im sorry im late, perhaps the gentleman from the great state of wisconsin didnt realize that i was at home bleep his mom. Jon whoa. I know. Jon whoa whoa. I know. Patty murray has a mouth on her, jon. A filthy mouth. Jon thats not a promising start. It got worse. Here is the audio from day four. Listen [screaming] jon pretty sure thats from texas chain saw massacre. Pretty sure youre wrong. Jon how did they arrive to a deal . Lets skip to the end. On the last day ryan said hey bleep how does a budget of a trillion sound and said make it 1. 1 trillion and you have a deal bleep and suddeny. Come with me and youll see a world of passing legislation [cheers and applause] jon dont throw your things. Someone has to clean that up. Will there even be enough votes for this . Oh, oh, yes, jon. Congress will vote for this if they know what is good for them. Several lawmakers told us that their wifes wifes have thrd to leave leave them if they alld yet another cries dwrois ruin another family crisis. Now theres a deal, jon, all the representatives head ohm for a merry triple xmass. Theres a lot of stockings being stuffed, jon. Im talking about a bleep fest, jon. Jon we understand that. [cheers and applause] jon welcome back. So. [cheers and applause] a bipartisan deal has been reached. A crease fire declared cease fire declared in the partisan battles that have ravaged washington. Are we really ready to give up this fight. Before you scream yes, for the love of god, yes you might want to watch this from jason jones. Youve seen the smash hits budget battle one, two, three and four. They had it all, countdown clocks, countup clocks. Counting down and up clocks but now it looks like the congressional shutdown gravy train is pulling into station. Congress may be ready to call a truce in the ongoing budget wars. A christmas miracle, a budget deal. But a budget deal doesnt mean its time to throw in the towel. Thank god its over. I was so sick of covering that. I never want to do another ill do your budget story for you. Why . Theres no story. Ill bring you the antagonistic sound bites, silly graphics and a real sense of imminent fiscal doom. John, its over. Its over when i say its over. Budget battle 5. The sequel that the 24 Hour News Networks demand. Its a fight for ratings against impossible odds. This just got real. Actually not really theyve been at a stalemate for some time and they are hoping not to shutdown the government this time. Well, its not hard to believe. Democrats wont deal with entitlements, republicans not putting tax increases on the table. Killing the momentum here todd, sorry. Searching for an ancient enemy. Coming from within the house of representatives. Enough is enough ive had it with these debates on the mondayfriday congress. We all know that onehalf of onethird of our government could still bleep this up. Some conserve active republicans opposed to the deal. Marco rubio saying he opposes this. Yeah, thats the stuff the budget saga continues with a special appearance with Reginald Johnson as the guy he always plays in things like this. What contact exactly are we dealing with here, pal. Getting a deal down. Give me something i can use. Didnt touch entitlements and ignored tax revenues. Them it to me straight. They are kicking the can down the road. One question do we get to win this time . , i think thats for rambo. Dont call me on the action movie references. Budget battle five its over when i say its over. Yippeekiaye mother bleep . Comshis n . wcnww welcome back my guest tonight a scholar of religion and author his latest book is zealot the life and times of jesus of nazareth. Please welcome back to the program reza aslan. [cheers and applause] all right. All right. Jon reza i just want to be clear you are a muslim. Shhh. Jon why would you write a book on the sphownder of christianity. This is my secret muslim plan to destroy christianity. Jon i dont know if you remember this you went on fox and the lady was asking the questions and i was looking at it like oh, my god reza is going to strange this will person. I did okay. Jon you did wonderful. It was incredible. The book is so good. Thank you. The perfect Christmas Gift for your jewish friends. [laughter] jon yes. Theres nothing we like better around this time of year. [ laughter ] nice picture of him looking judgmentally at us. Nice menorah. Yeah, hey, enjoy your potato latkes. [laughter] how are you doing otherwise . These are very exciting times for iran. Absolutely. This nuclear deal has really changed the atmosphere in iran. So much excitement over it. Frankly, a little too much excitement over it because its not really that big of a dmeel so far as deal in so far as sanctions and relief and helping the economy. Whereas in the United States nobody talks about this deal as possibly laying the groundwork for future normalization, thats all they talk about in iraq. Its created two camps. A reconciliation camp and isolationist camp. The reconciliation camp has all the momentum. The isolationists are still there, muted, waiting for this thing to collapse so they can attack the current administration. Frankly shall the Congress Might give them that opportunity. Jon how many power does rohani. We saw the eight years of ahmedinejad and the win of am ahmedinejad electorally. There was tremendous protest in the streets, tremendous violence. This movement is sort of driven underground. Rohani is considered in that camp, yes . More of a reformist . He is a moderate. Jon does he have any power or does it rest with the Supreme Leader and if he says he is in the isolationist camp are they in the isolationist camp . Yes. The only power that really matters is the Supreme Leaders voice but its more complex than that. Theres a robust Civic Infrastructure in iraq and the president has the opportunity to make fundamentally changes. What he has going for him is so far the Supreme Leader is supporting this. Thats why the reconciliation camp as this great momentum on its side and why the isolationists are keeping for the most part quiet because if you disagree with the deal you are disagreeing with the Supreme Leader. The issue again and i hate to bring this up rests with the u. S. Congress. Jon i thought you were going to jews again. [ laughter ] i thought thats where we were going here and i was going to once again say were quite pleasant when you get to know us. [laughter] this is the problem, you know shall everybody in the u. S. Keeps talking about how can we trust iran to hold up its end of the bargain. Thats not the problem. Jon because in this country we have an isolationist camp. Its similar. You are playing to a very particular much more rigid base here that wont allow you saw the kerfuffle that occurred when obama just shook raul castros hand. Let alone trying to forge some kind of way forward with iran. Far be it for me toll suggest that congress is full of petty children presiding over a cesspool of wasted space. Jon so you do watch our show. You do watch yes. You cant help but feel that they are actually trying to scuttle this deal. The negotiation is pretty clear in exchange for iran freezing and rolling back the nuclear program, which theyve done, well release a little bit of their frozen assets and promise not to engage in any new sanctions. This bill that congress is trying to pass to create new sanctions is a violation of the agreement. The foreign minister of iran, a pretty western friendly moderate guy has said if this thing pass its the end of the deal. Its a deal breaker. You cant help but feel this congress is full of people who are less interested in the good of the country than in their own political good. They want to go back to miss missoula, montana and tell the 3,000 people that voted them into office that they were tough on iran and a friend to israel. It will get them reelected to two more years for a fairly curby job to get paid to do nothing. But its a danger to the country. Jon when you look at it there are certain absolute boogiemen that are out there, the united nations, iran. And not for no reason there are certain things iran is doing. They are bad actors in certain fields of play and all that. Absolutely. Jon if we dont engage these country and build more productive relationships i think were beginning to learn that pure sanctions driven consequences or invading them and trying to hold the territory until a government arises that likes us is not maybe the answer. What cracks me up was if get iran to the negotiating table. Sanctioning them is a punishment for coming to the negotiating table . The sanctions worked because they were international sanctions. They worked because we got the europeans and russia and even china to go along with them. If this sanctions law passes in congress its as clear a message to all allies that this is all a joke for us and were not serious about this. The entire sanctions regime will fall apart and iran will continue to enrich uranium to its heart content. Jon and theyll erode it anyway. Stick around . Sure. Jon zealotons on pn jon thats our show. Join us tomorrow at 11 00. Here it is your moment of zen. Theres a bit of controversial of the memorial service. Its about the sign