NBC’s David Gregory interviewed Secretary of the Treasury Jack Lew on Sunday, in the aftermath of the temporary resolution of the debt ceiling and government shutdown showdowns, and proceeded to ask him a series of softball questions designed to emphasize the supposed horror of the shutdown and cast blame on Republicans:

You said this week with the crisis over that the cloud of economic uncertainty has been lifted. How is that possibly the case when in just a couple of months, we could be right back to the brink again?

[W]hat damage has been done? Can you lay it out plain and simple?

So one more economic question. A lot of Republicans are crowing about the fact that whatever drama was here, whatever crisis atmosphere was here, that the sequester cuts have been locked in place, these automatic spending cuts that have kept spending down at an historic level. Do you think that that has hurt the economy, hurt economic growth, the fact that we've had this lower spending level?

Who do you blame for the inability to do what you've done in the past?