Pete Hoekstra Award for Shameless Hyperbole goes to NPR's Liasson: CARS program like Katrina!

[SemiCharmedQuark]

http://thinkprogress.org/2009/08/05/liasson-mini-katrina/

Last night, Fox News aired a clip of a woman at a Philadelphia town hall meeting over the weekend berating Sen. Arlen Specter (D-PA) about health care reform. “What I see is a bureaucratic nightmare, senator. … And you want us to believe that a government that can’t even run a Cash for Clunkers program is going to run one-seventh of our U.S. economy,” the woman complained. “I think that there is anger out there, real anger,” said NPR’s Mara Liasson, responding to the clip. She then called the woman’s concern “legitimate” and compared the Cash for Clunkers program to Hurricane Katrina:

LIASSON: I thought that woman actually asked a pretty legitimate question — especially Cash for Clunkers is like a mini- Katrina here. I mean it’s not good to start a program and not be able to execute it.

Nearly 2,000 people died and thousands more were injured or displaced as a result of Hurricane Katrina and the Bush administration’s incompetent response. However, “Cash for Clunkers” — the government program giving people a $4,500 voucher to trade in an old vehicle for a newer, more fuel efficient one — has been so successful that Congress is considering appropriating more money for it to continue.

[gratuitous]

1. And lost in the ridiculous commentary

Lost in the ridiculous back-and-forth about a government program so successful that it was used up in a week when backers thought it would last a month is the fact that the CARS program was supposed to be funded with $4 billion, not $1 billion. Why was the cash available slashed? Republicans wanted to starve it. The program went ahead anyway, and hey presto! cars got sold, dealers made money, people got more efficient new cars, and the Republicans have to eat their hearts out. Okay, not much more than a morsel, but you eat the heart you have, not the one you wish you had.

And then the Republicans and their mouthpieces have the nerve to say the program was underfunded! "Have mercy on me, your honor! Yes, I murdered my parents, but I believe I'm entitled to some leniency. After all, I'm an orphan!"

[Toucano]

2. She is insane.

How offensive!

[groovedaddy]

3. Was this an editorial comment or news report? If it's editorial, well, that's her opinion. If it

was presented as "news," then it was out of line for her to make such comments.

[mediaman007]

4. My response:

Mara Liasson:

I have just finished reading your comments on "Cash for Clunkers." To compare "Cash for Clunkers" with the government's response to Hurricane Katrina is irresponsible. If you want hyperbole, how about FOX News Channel would hire Joseph Goebbels, but he wasn't available, so they went to NPR instead.

Perhaps you should count to 10 before you speak.

XXXX
XXXXXX, XX

[Blue_Tires]

5. give her credit....at least she didn't compare it to 9-11

:sarcasm: