'The problem is this issue with the House Republicans,' NBC's Chuck Todd declared Wednesday night in naming the culprit blocking help to Americans whom anchor Brian Williams asserted 'are hurting every day and hoping for a result to make their lives better.'
In a story on President Barack Obama's press conference, Todd maintained Obama and the Senate could come together, but he blamed the conservatives for preventing a debt ceiling deal, fretting over 'that new conservative, the Tea Party caucus' which rejects 'anything that even remotely looks like a tax hike on anybody.'
CBS Evening News anchor Scott Pelley, however, held President Obama as just as culpable, as he saw intransigence, or sticking to principle, by both sides: 'Negotiations are stuck over whether a deal would include tax increases, as the President insists, or rely on spending cuts as Republicans demand.'
From the Wednesday, June 29 NBC Nightly News, picking up after Todd's packaged piece on Obama's news conference attacks on Republicans:
BRIAN WILLIAMS: Chuck, of course, here's the question, does this work? What does it do for the people the President himself talked about it today, the Americans who are hurting every day and hoping for a result to make their lives better?
CHUCK TODD: Well, look, the problem is this issue with the House Republicans. The leadership on the Senate Republicans and the House Republicans and the White House are pretty close to a deal, but what can they sell to the House Republican caucus, that new conservative, the Tea Party caucus and right now they don't think they can sell anything that even remotely looks like a tax hike on anybody. That's why, while Senate Republicans are close to agreeing on some things like getting rid of those oil subsidies or that corporate jet loophole, they're not going to act on anything, Brian, until the House votes, until John Boehner can sell that deal. And right now, a lot of people don't think he can sell that deal so now you're hearing talk of short-term deals, maybe six months at a time. We'll see. It's going to be a long July before this gets done.