Stert seems to have it in for MSL, to the point that he strecvthes the facts to try and damn the project. His claim that MSL has tripled in cost is based on the flimsest of evidence. It certainly is over budget, but this is hardly surprisingly given the level of ambition showed by this mission:

The largest Mars lander to date
The largest Mars rover to date
The first RTG powered rover anywhere
The most complex and sophisticated science payload ever landed on another planet
The first flight of nearly all the sampling devices and instruments
The first flight of the Skycrane system

I wonder if Stern has an anti Mars agenda here, given his professional focus on the outer solar system and his attempts while in office to cut extensions to the MERs and Mars Odyssey?