MORNING MESSAGE: A Still, Small Voice
OurFuture.org's Richard Eskow: "Last year in Africa I heard the story of a nine-year-old girl who took her own life rather than face the horrors in her village. Her voice has spoken to me ever since, informing the work of my days with the graphic immediacy of her experience. Now the children of Newtown speak to millions of us. For me the voice of Newtown will alway be the voice of that friend of a friend’s daughter. From now on she will always be a still, small voice in my life … Whatever your politics, I wish for you what I wish for myself: that we always hear the gentle whisper of the twenty small voices that were stilled last week in Newtown. We owe them that."
Groundswell For Gun Control
President suggests he will push for gun legislation at Newtown service. AP: "'Can we say that we’re truly doing enough to give all the children of this country the chance they deserve to live out their lives in happiness and with purpose? I’ve been reflecting on this the last few days,' the president said, somber and steady in his voice. 'And if we’re honest with ourselves, the answer is no. We’re not doing enough and we will have to change.'"
W. Post analyzes: "What Obama’s speech seemed to signal is that, at least in his mind, a tipping point has been reached — that the slaughter of 20 first graders should not be soon forgotten, that it should mean something."
Sen. Feinstein to introduce assault weapons ban on first day of new Congress. Politico: "'We’ve tried to take my bill from ‘94 to 2004 and perfect it. We believe we have. We exempt over 900 specific weapons that will not fall under the bill. But the purpose of this bill is to get just what [New York] Mayor Bloomberg said, weapons of war, off the streets of our cities,' … Feinstein said. [Sen. Chuck] Schumer on Sunday called for three specific steps …'One is to ban assault weapons, try and reinstate the assault weapons bans … Second is to limit the size of clips to maybe no more than 10 bullets per clip, and third is to make it harder for mentally unstable people to get guns.'"
Anti-gun control politicians duck media. AP: "Gun rights advocates appeared reluctant to make their case against tougher gun laws while Connecticut families and the nation were still in the earliest stages of grieving. David Gregory, the host of 'Meet the Press,' said NBC invited all 31 'pro-gun' senators to appear on Sunday’s show, and all 31 declined. All eight Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee were unavailable or unwilling to appear on CBS’ 'Face the Nation,' host Bob Schieffer said."
Speaker Gives On Taxes, But Is It Enough?
Speaker offers higher tax rates on income above $1M and 1-year debt limit extension in exchange for Social Security, Medicare cuts. NYT: "…the president and the speaker put aside their philosophical argument over whether higher tax rates would hurt 'small businesses' and 'job creators' and began wrangling only over price. While Republicans with knowledge of the talks said a deal was not imminent, they indicated that it was close … No deal is certain. The parties are far apart on possible changes to benefit programs, especially Medicare … Boehner wants Mr. Obama to agree to move the government to a different way of calculating inflation that would slow the growth rate of many government programs, chiefly Social Security, by slightly lowering cost-of-living adjustments. It would also raise additional revenues because tax brackets, which rise each year with inflation, would rise more slowly … Boehner was willing to drop discussions of an immediate increase in the eligibility age for Medicare…"
ThinkProgress offers, "4 Reasons Why Boehner’s Latest Tax Offer Is A Bad Deal": "1) Taxes on millionaires are going up anyway … 2) Moving the line to millionaires costs billions in revenue … 3) Entitlements (and other spending) have already been cut … Boehner’s proposal does not include an extension of unemployment benefits…"
Dems pushing Boehner to specify Medicare proposal. The Hill: "'If that is what the Republicans want to propose, then they ought to propose it, not just have it float,' Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer (Md.) said this week … Obama is already on the record supporting an expansion of Medicare means testing … Sens. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) have all expressed a recent openness to expand means testing for the sake of deficit reduction."
The deficit is not that big, notes NYT's Paul Krugman: "At some point someone will announce, in dire tones, that we have a ONE TRILLION DOLLAR deficit. … [But] given reasonable estimates of likely future growth and inflation, we would have a stable or declining ratio of debt to G.D.P. even if we had a $400 billion deficit … That still leaves $600 billion or so. What’s that about? It’s the depressed economy — full stop … the deficit is a side-effect of an economic depression, and the first order of business should be to end that depression."
