"meet the press," specifically addressing president obama's role in the debate process. >> he has a plan that he's put forward that involves entitlement cuts. that involves spending cuts. that you've made a choice as have republicans to leave tax loopholes in place and you'll rather have those and live with all these -- >> david, that's just nonsense. if he had a plan, why wouldn't senate democrats go ahead and pass it? the house has acted twice over the last ten months to replace the sequester. if we're going to -- the president counted his tax hikes on january 1st. >> democrats are firing back, though. here's senate majority whip dirk durbin today. >> what we have here is a steady diet. i don't want to point fingers, but i will. that the house republican approach to this is we're either going to do it exclusively with republicans or we just won't do it at all. only when they're pushed to the absolute extreme will they allow a bipartisan vote. >> nbc's peter alexander is at