Hotline After Dark -- Raise The Roof

"Nightly News" led with Continental 128's emergency landing. "World News" led with the effect of Cash for Clunkers on U.S. auto sales. "Evening News" also led with the increase in sales for U.S. automakers.

While health care reform and the Cash for Clunkers program were a strong presence on the airwaves 8/3 p.m., there was also a good amount of discussion about Treas. Sec. Tim Geithner and NEC dir. Lawrence Summers' weekend comments about potentially raising taxes.

CNN's Lothian: "The White House really trying to pour water on this, saying that this was nothing more, we shouldn't read into this beyond what they said, that the president really stands behind what he has always said in the past. And again, we were also told that the president met with his economic advisers today. Both Geithner and Summers were in that meeting, and he reiterated to them where he stood, sort of a way to clarify, if you will, where he stands on this" ("Situation Room," 8/3).

CNN's Crowley: "Here's the problem. When you put economists out to make political statements ... they should have backed off that. I mean, look, Larry Summers and Timothy Geithner are economists at the heart of it and they stated the truth. If you've got huge deficits, there's one of two things that you can do to bring that deficit down. The economy just explodes and it's great and everyone has a job or you raise taxes. So I just think you heard a little dose of realism there" ("Situation Room," 8/3).

Ex-AR Gov. Mike Huckabee (R): "Robert Gibbs had to dive on that grenade today because it was going off. And Summers and Geithner did the unthinkable. They spoke the truth. They said what everybody with a brain understands. You can't keep spending money like this and run up these deficits without at some point having to pay for it" ("On the Record," FNC, 8/3).

Conservative blogger Mary Katharine Ham, on Pres. Obama: "He's in a corner here. People are very upset about deficits. And you're going to hear more of that over August recess. So he wants to close the gap, but he also wants to spend a lot of money. ... The AP reports today that the estimates for tax revenue is going to go down 18 percent, which is the biggest drop since the '30s, I believe. So this is just a fundamental problem with what he wants to do and the amount of money he has to fund it especially with the economy still flailing" ("O'Reilly Factor," FNC, 8/3).

Ex-WH adviser David Gergen, on whether Obama will raise taxes on the middle class: "He is not going to do it quickly, in any event. He is certainly going to wait until the recession is over and unemployment comes down. That may be a year-and-a-half, two years. ... Inevitably, the taxes are going to go up, and go up on the middle class. The administration will try first to take it out of people at the high end, but there is not enough money there. And one day, eventually, as -- as so many have done, if you spend a lot of money, as this administration wants to do, and as the Bush administration did, that combination of spending is going to force taxes to go up eventually."

More Gergen, on the timing of a potential tax hike: "I think to raise taxes now, first of all, would be bad economics, with a recession still underway and high unemployment. But, secondly, I think the political price of doing that now would be just horrendous, and Democrats would lose badly in the 2010 elections" ("AC360," CNN, 8/3).

After the jump, see more on the reaction to Geithner and Summers' comments, interviews with Trans. Sec. Ray LaHood, and how health care reform is playing over the recess.

(MAURA O'BRIEN)

FNC's O'Reilly: "Obama's painted himself into a corner. He can't raise the taxes on it. He just a can't. That will be the end of him if he does" ("O'Reilly Factor," FNC, 8/3).

NPR's Williams: "I don't think that Geithner as Summers as the economics people have much option if they're going to be honest brokers here but to say they is a tremendous deficit, and we have to deal with it at some point before it becomes a problem. ... But inside the White House, David Axelrod, the senior advisor, Rahm Emanuel, the Chief of Staff, and President Obama all know it's just too treacherous to talk about raising taxes because Republicans would beat them about the head politically and 2010 would turn out to be a slaughter" ("Special Report," FNC, 8/3).

Karl Rove: "I think the message that the American people needs to be, 'You know what? We agree with President Obama when he said we're out of money, so stop spending more of it.' You know that was the thing about Geithner and Summers on Sunday. They were saying, you know what, 'We need to deal with the deficit and the way they were going to deal with the deficit is by raising taxes.' No. The answer is restrain the spending. Don't be passing all those stimulus bills, omnibus bills, health care bills, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera" ("Hannity," FNC, 8/3).

The Weekly Standard's Hayes, on Obama potentially raising taxes: "Really, technically he has already broken his pledge. On April 1st, a tax went into effect that raised cigarette taxes 61 cents a pack. The median income of smokers is $36,000 a year. ... What the White House said to explain that was that they really mean no income tax hikes or payroll tax increases. I suspect that what we're going to see as they continue to look for ways to fund this massive spending orgy that we have seen over the past seven months is going back to that and specifying not payroll tax increases, not income tax increases, but leaving a lot of other things on the table" ("Special Report," FNC, 8/3).

Syndicated columnist Charles Krauthammer, in response: "If the president and his team start to parse words in a Clintonian way, and after the president had said last year 'I will not raise your taxes in any form,' all of a sudden says I only meant income tax and payroll, that's not going to fly" ("Special Report," FNC, 8/3).

WHAT YOU GONNA DO WITH ALL THAT CLUNK?

Trans. Sec. Ray LaHood appeared on "Hardball" 8/3 p.m. to discuss Cash for Clunkers.

LaHood: "The $2 billion that the Senate will pass this week will take us ... until after Labor Day. It will take us through August, and we will be able to meet all the demands that are out there."

LaHood, on whether this program can help revive the U.S. auto industry: "I don`t think there`s any question about it. This is the
lifeline that will bring back the automobile industry in America, which has been hurting very badly. And Americans are buying these automobiles because they`ve been, you know, racking up 100,000 miles on cars, and now they have a chance to get into a new car, which Americans love to do. They love to buy cars. This is their chance to do it."

MSNBC's Matthews: "If I gave you 50,000 dollars right now Mr. Secretary, what car would you buy? What`s the best -- how about if I give you 30,000?"

LaHood: "I have my eye on an Explorer, four-wheel drive. But I have a '97 Buick Regal that doesn`t qualify for the program. I may still buy the Explorer. I have been talking to a dealer back in Peoria about this. But I would buy a Ford Explorer" (MSNBC, 8/3).

LaHood was also in the "Situation Room" 8/3.

On why Congress should continue to put money into the program: "This is what the American people want. And for the first time in two years, Ford has an increase in their sales. And this will continue for GM. It will continue for Chrysler. It will continue for other car manufacturers if the program continues. And it will be a lifeline to the automobile industry, to American workers who manufacture cars and to our economy. If something is working, we should continue it."

CNN's Malveaux: "How do you respond to some of those senators -- obviously, Claire McCaskill -- who says we simply can't afford anymore taxpayer dollars to extend Cash for Clunkers, the idea was to prime the pump, but not subsidize auto purchases forever?"

LaHood: "Well, we can't afford not to, because the automobile industry is hurting, American workers are hurting. Dealers are hurting. We know this has been a very strong lifeline. We want to continue that. We want to continue it through the month of August."

On what the admin. plans to do differently the second time around: "Our people were in Delaware yesterday. We've hired Citigroup to help us and Oracle to help us, as contractors to help us. They've hired additional people. We will have many more people processing these deals as they come through. And we believe there will be enough people -- and enough trained people -- to make sure we don't have the same kind of dilemma that we faced the first four days of the program" (CNN, 8/3).

Among the others who weighed in on the program:

Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH), on the program: "This ... has clearly worked every bit as well or better than expected. It works for jobs. It works for creating demand. It works for the environment. It works to put people back to work. It`s the best -- it`s in some sense, it`s the best stimulus that we`ve seen. The money goes out in people`s pockets. It`s spent. It`s back into the community exactly what we want to create demand in the auto industry."

Brown, on GOPers: "And I think if they want to block it and, you know, into next week, we stay as long as we need to" ("Rachel Maddow Show," MSNBC, 8/3).

Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA): "We`ve been in the worst recession since the Great Depression. This is working. Let`s just go ahead and move forward with it. And we could pay for it by simply taking some funds out of the auto retooling money that we had as part of the stimulus, which is the way Speaker Pelosi said she was going to pay for it" ("The Ed Show," MSNBC, 8/3).

Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), on whether the Senate will find more money for the program: "Sure, they can find money, but we just borrow it. Of course, the first $1 billion was extra debt. We spent $800 billion, you know, to stimulate the economy. We didn't fund this program out of that. It was another expenditure. Now, they say, well, we are taking $2 billion out of nuclear power loan money, which we really need to encourage the nuclear power industry, and this money would all be paid back."

Sessions: "We have to get serious about spending. ... We could fund this from the $800 billion stimulus project. We voted last week not to fund unemployment insurance, not to fund the shortfall in highways with the stimulus money but to actually add more debt" ("Your World," FNC, 8/3).

Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ), on the program's effects on the poor: "Well, most of the poor people, the really poor people, that couldn't even take advantage of this, were dependent upon used vehicles. And this has caused used vehicles to rise in price, and some of the parts that other used vehicles were used to be able to buy say at a junkyard or something like that, the used vehicles now are coming at a premium, and it's hurting the poorest of all the poor. ... The entire program comes at the expense of the rest of the economy. Any time government gets in the middle of this, they choose winners and losers" ("Campbell Brown," CNN, 8/3).

SHOUT, SHOUT, LET IT ALL OUT

The coverage of health care took a turn last night, with most focusing on the protestors that have frequented recent health care town hall meetings.

Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-TX), who was shouted down by organized protestors at a recent town hall: "Many of these people were summoned in by the local Republican and Libertarian parties. They didn`t even live in the neighborhood. They were there not just to be heard but to ensure other people weren`t heard on this. A real desperation tactic."

More: "A mob scene, is just one way of trying to intimidate members into weakening their position. In my case, it really just reaffirmed my resolve to go back and get a strong public plan, force more competition, provide more choice to people, get the reform I know my constituents want."

Doggett: "They did express this concern about euthanasia. That`s a real slur about this bill. I worked with my colleagues on that section of the bill. All that it does is to provide that a physician under Medicare can be paid for talking with a senior who wants to talk with the physician. If they want to express the desire to be tied to a machine indefinitely, or as in my case, they want to sign a living will to provide some instructions instead of letting someone else decide for them, they have that right. This has nothing to do with euthanasia, which is outlawed in this country, and we do not deal with euthanasia whatsoever in this bill" ("Hardball," MSNBC, 8/3).

Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC): "I want to thank all the American people who are going out, showing up at these town halls and these meetings to let congressmen and senators know what they think because I know they're outraged. ... I've never seen people more panicked about what we're doing here in Washington" ("On the Record," FNC, 8/3).

Rep. John Campbell (R-CA): "When you get out there in front of Americans and you're trying to push something down their throat and you don't even know what's in it, that's ... one of the things that's driving the public mad is that the congressmen aren't reading the bill. And we've had experiences of that recently" ("Hannity," FNC, 8/3).

Talk radio host Michael Smerconish: "People are hot. I sense it in the phone calls that I get every day. I think they`re very nervous about what`s going to come out of this debate concerning national health care. And ... I have heard it 50 times, if they can`t get cash for clunkers straight, what in the world are they going to do with my national health insurance? ... It smacks of bureaucratic ineptitude that the federal government has blown through this money so quickly on a plan that seems seemingly straight forward" ("Hardball," MSNBC, 8/3).

Politico's Martin: "The polarizing issues, the whole issue about euthanasia, however credible it may or may not be -- are causing Democrats problems right now. The average American hears those things. And they sort of flinch, whether or not they are true or not. That`s what`s slowing this bill down, are those kind of flash point issues out there, that the Republicans are exploiting" ("Hardball," MSNBC, 8/3).

CNN's Crowley: "Those critics of Obama-style reform say the more people learn about it, the less they like it; while supporters argue it's not that Americans are learning more about reform, it's that they're learning erroneous things about reform. And with no single plan that has jelled on Capitol Hill ... it really allows both sides to battle this out in the abstract, making it easier for both to insist that they're right" ("Situation Room," 8/3).