Remarks of President Barack Obama – As Prepared for Delivery
At a Memorial Service for the Victims of the Shooting in Tucson, Arizona
University of Arizona, McKale Memorial Center
Tucson, Arizona
January 12, 2011

As Prepared for Delivery—

To the families of those we’ve lost; to all who called them friends; to the students of this university, the public servants gathered tonight, and the people of Tucson and Arizona:  I have come here tonight as an American who, like all Americans, kneels to pray with you today, and will stand by you tomorrow.

There is nothing I can say that will fill the sudden hole torn in your hearts.  But know this: the hopes of a nation are here tonight.  We mourn with you for the fallen.  We join you in your grief.  And we add our faith to yours that Representative Gabrielle Giffords and the other living victims of this tragedy pull through.

As Scripture tells us:

There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
the holy place where the Most High dwells.
God is within her, she will not fall;
God will help her at break of day.

On Saturday morning, Gabby, her staff, and many of her constituents gathered outside a supermarket to exercise their right to peaceful assembly and free speech.  They were fulfilling a central tenet of the democracy envisioned by our founders – representatives of the people answering to their constituents, so as to carry their concerns to our nation’s capital.  Gabby called it “Congress on Your Corner” – just an updated version of government of and by and for the people.

That is the quintessentially American scene that was shattered by a gunman’s bullets.  And the six people who lost their lives on Saturday – they too represented what is best in America.

Judge John Roll served our legal system for nearly 40 years.  A graduate of this university and its law school, Judge Roll was recommended for the federal bench by John McCain twenty years ago, appointed by President George H.W. Bush, and rose to become Arizona’s chief federal judge.  His colleagues described him as the hardest-working judge within the Ninth Circuit.  He was on his way back from attending Mass, as he did every day, when he decided to stop by and say hi to his Representative.  John is survived by his loving wife, Maureen, his three sons, and his five grandchildren.

George and Dorothy Morris – “Dot” to her friends – were high school sweethearts who got married and had two daughters.  They did everything together, traveling the open road in their RV, enjoying what their friends called a 50-year honeymoon.  Saturday morning, they went by the Safeway to hear what their Congresswoman had to say.  When gunfire rang out, George, a former Marine, instinctively tried to shield his wife.  Both were shot.  Dot passed away.

A New Jersey native, Phyllis Schneck retired to Tucson to beat the snow. But in the summer, she would return East, where her world revolved around her 3 children, 7 grandchildren, and 2 year-old great-granddaughter.  A gifted quilter, she’d often work under her favorite tree, or sometimes sew aprons with the logos of the Jets and the Giants to give out at the church where she volunteered.  A Republican, she took a liking to Gabby, and wanted to get to know her better.

Dorwan and Mavy Stoddard grew up in Tucson together – about seventy years ago. They moved apart and started their own respective families, but after both were widowed they found their way back here, to, as one of Mavy’s daughters put it, “be boyfriend and girlfriend again.” When they weren’t out on the road in their motor home, you could find them just up the road, helping folks in need at the Mountain Avenue Church of Christ.  A retired construction worker, Dorwan spent his spare time fixing up the church along with their dog, Tux.  His final act of selflessness was to dive on top of his wife, sacrificing his life for hers.

Everything Gabe Zimmerman did, he did with passion – but his true passion was people.  As Gabby’s outreach director, he made the cares of thousands of her constituents his own, seeing to it that seniors got the Medicare benefits they had earned, that veterans got the medals and care they deserved, that government was working for ordinary folks.  He died doing what he loved – talking with people and seeing how he could help.  Gabe is survived by his parents, Ross and Emily, his brother, Ben, and his fiancée, Kelly, who he planned to marry next year.

And then there is nine year-old Christina Taylor Green.  Christina was an A student, a dancer, a gymnast, and a swimmer.  She often proclaimed that she wanted to be the first woman to play in the major leagues, and as the only girl on her Little League team, no one put it past her.  She showed an appreciation for life uncommon for a girl her age, and would remind her mother, “We are so blessed.  We have the best life.”  And she’d pay those blessings back by participating in a charity that helped children who were less fortunate.

Our hearts are broken by their sudden passing.  Our hearts are broken – and yet, our hearts also have reason for fullness.

Our hearts are full of hope and thanks for the 13 Americans who survived the shooting, including the congresswoman many of them went to see on Saturday.   Read the rest of this entry »

Should a mentally ill person be able to take a gun to a political rally?

People who advocate unfettered access to guns for all Americans how about the rights of the individuals without guns who are peaceably assembling….do their rights matter less than the person carrying the gun?  It is clear that the laws concerning access to guns are not stringent enough in that they do not prevent the mentally ill from getting guns and causing unspeakable tragedy to our communities and the nation.  However, whenever the slightest protection is proposed the NRA is on the march through the halls of Congress claiming to its members that the government is trying to take away our guns. 

Unstable individuals are obtaining guns and taking them to gatherings the very nature of which are likely to involve flared tempers.  A clear recipe for tragedy even in the mind of reasonable Second Amendment purist.  How do we prevent it from happening?  One way is to recognize that the people who sell firearms are the last line of defense and prevention when it comes to catastrophic events such as what happened in Tuscon, Arizona.  It is clear that the existing gun buying disqualification databases are not being updated as they should when it comes to the mentally ill.  And what if someone has yet to be diagnosed as mentally unstable?  Should he/she be able to buy a gun because their psychosis has yet to be discovered.  Why not have some sort of exam that individuals must take at the time of purchasing a deadly weapon. We have test for individuals before allowing them to drive a car, another type of deadly weapon.   Why not also have such a test for the deadliest of weapons.  Congress must provide the tools necessary for sellers to keep guns out of the hands of deranged and psychotic individuals.  It is possible to do so without weakening the rights of sane Americans.

The tea party chairman ends with the following, as to bringing a gun to a “general political rally, I don’t have a problem with it.”  I guess he didn’t realize that the event in Tuscon was a “general” political event where there were no flaring tempers just a psychotic individual with a gun.

One of our favorite people at the White House, Robert Gibbs, is stepping down after working with Senator now President Obama for four straight years.  Gibbs made the following statement about his departure and next steps.

“It is — and you all know this because you do this as well — it is an honor and a privilege to stand here, to work inside this building, to serve your country, to work for a president that I admire as much as President Barack Obama,” said Gibbs. “I have been a member of his staff for almost seven years, and again it’s a remarkable privilege. It is in many ways the opportunity of a lifetime, one that I will be forever thankful and grateful for.”

“What I am going to do next is step back a bit, recharge some. We’ve been going at this pace for at least four years. I will have an opportunity to give some speeches, I will continue to provide advice and counsel to this building and this president. And I look forward to continuing to do that.”

Robert Gibbs has served as press secretary to the President for two years and will be leaving in February. 

This guy really does his job VERY well and will be missed.

The IRS granted taxpayers a few more days to file their taxes this year:

WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service kicked off the U.S. tax filing season, announcing on Tuesday that taxpayers will have until April 18, 2011, to file their 2010 returns and pay their tax bills because of a holiday on April 15.

The agency also said that it would not be ready to process returns carrying itemized deductions until mid- to late February, because it has to reprogram its processing systems following the passage of a big tax bill at the end of 2010.

April 15 is Emancipation Day, a holiday observed in the District of Columbia. Taxpayers who file extensions will have until October 17, 2011, to file their 2010 tax returns.

To begin, the first and only priority of the 112th Congress.

The party that brought us the worst economy since the Great Depression, that led us into Iraq and the worst foreign policy disaster in American history, that would like to take a hammer to Social Security and a chisel to Medicare, is back in control of the House of Representatives with the expressed mission of undermining all things Obama.

Second,

The fundamental mission of the G.O.P. is to shovel ever more money to those who are already rich. That’s why you got all that disgracefully phony rhetoric from Republicans about attacking budget deficits and embracing austerity while at the same time they were fighting like mad people to pile up the better part of a trillion dollars in new debt by extending the Bush tax cuts.

Some actual facts as oppose to make believe,

There’s a reason the G.O.P. reveres Ronald Reagan and it’s not because of his fiscal probity. As Garry Wills wrote in “Reagan’s America”:

“Reagan nearly tripled the deficit in his eight years, and never made a realistic proposal for cutting it. As the biographer Lou Cannon noted, it was unfair for critics to say that Reagan was trying to balance the budget on the backs of the poor, since ‘he never seriously attempted to balance the budget at all.’ “

In case you bought the rubbish the GOP sold you on November 2nd,

This is a party that has mastered the art of taking from the poor and the middle class and giving to the rich. We should at least be clear about this and stop being repeatedly hoodwinked — like Charlie Brown trying to kick Lucy’s football — by G.O.P. claims of fiscal responsibility.

Aaarrrgh is right

This guy is suppose to be a GOP frontrunner for the 2012 presidential race.

As Barbour recalls it in a new profile in The Weekly Standard, things weren’t so bad in his hometown of Yazoo City, which took until 1970 to integrate its schools (though the final event itself is said to have gone on peacefully). For example, Barbour says that there was no problem of Ku Klux Klan activity in the town — thanks to the Citizens Council movement, an organization that was founded on the basis of resistance to integration and the promotion of white supremacy.

Really?  Really?????

Aahhh…the beauty of the follow up question. 

How many people have to die before you are prepared to reverse your decision on the transplant operations?” seemed like the obvious question.

She said she thought that was unfair and started to explain how dire the state’s financial situation is. If people are so worried about the transplant patients then they should ask the federal government in Washington to send us more money, she said. But she would not explain to me, or to any Democrats in the state capitol, what she has done with the nearly $200 million she was already given in ‘stimulus funds’ to spend on anything she liked.

Donate money to help the three patients, Randy Shepherd, Tiffany Tate, and David Hernandez, who are victims of Brewers death cuts here.

It turns out that the judge who is in such a hurry to pronounce the striking down of  the Affordable Health Care law bypassed high school logic when arriving at his conclusion.  Judge Henry Hudson, a conservative appointed by Bush whose Republican strategy company worked against the passage of the Health Care Reform law in 2009-2010 and whose company was paid directly for services by the Attorney General bringing the case Ken Cuccinelli, struck down the mandate portion of the Health Care Reform law in his Virginia court yesterday.  Can you say conflict of interest?????   In addition, the Judge’s lack of understanding of constitutional law resulted in an amateur mistake in his ruling. 

The following support was proffered by Hudson in his opinion:

If a person’s decision not to purchase health insurance at a particular point in time does not constitute the type of economic activity subject to regulation under the Commerce Clause, then logically an attempt to enforce such provision under the Necessary and Proper Clause is equally offensive to the Constitution.

The Administration’s argument is as follows:

the Commerce Clause empowers the federal government to regulate interstate commerce; the American health care system is interstate commerce; and the Affordable Care Act regulates the health care system. As such, the ACA fits comfortably within the confines of the Commerce Clause.

The problem with Hudson’s conclusion clearly spelled out by someone who attended the first week of law school:

[Orin Kerr, a professor of law at George Washington University, on the generally conservative law blog The Volokh Conspiracy] notes that [Hudson's rationale] is all wrong. The Necessary and Proper Clause allows Congress to take steps beyond those listed in the Constitution to achieve its Constitutional ends, including the regulation of interstate commerce. Hudson’s argument wipes a key part of the Constitution out of existence. Kerr says Hudson “rendered [it] a nullity.”

Kerr’s co-blogger, Case Western Reserve University Law Professor Jonathan Adler agreed, though he cautioned that Hudson’s error doesn’t necessarily imply that the mandate is constitutional.

In an interview with TPM this morning, Timothy Jost of Washington and Lee University, a supporter of the mandate, called the logic on this point “completely redundant.”

“In Hudson’s opinion he basically conflates the Commerce power and the Necessary and Proper power and says that each provision in a statute has to be looked at independently from every other provision, and each provision has to be independently authorized under the Commerce Clause,” Jost said. “And if it isn’t, the Necessary and Proper Clause doesn’t grant any more authority.”

As is clear from the above argument, Judge Henry Hudson does not understand the basics of the Constitution which explains his ruling.

Proof positive that Fox News is misinforming its viewers, the following World Public Opinion survey, a project managed by the Program on International Policy Attitudes at the University of Maryland,  proves that American voters who watch Fox News as their primary news source are significantly more misinformed than voters who get their news elsewhere. 

In the majority of the questions asked Fox News viewers placed first in stupidity.

This explains the midterm elections.  MSNBC rated first in accuracy.  Please remember this study when hearing the false equivalency of Fox News and MNSBC.

Take a look at this email taken directly from the “fair and balanced” news room of Fox News during the Health Care Reform fight and the public option battle specifically.  Media Matters  reports that it obtained the following email from a Faux Noise source:

1) Please use the term “government-run health insurance” or, when brevity is a concern, “government option,” whenever possible.

2) When it is necessary to use the term “public option” (which is, after all, firmly ensconced in the nation’s lexicon), use the qualifier “so-called,” as in “the so-called public option.”

3) Here’s another way to phrase it: “The public option, which is the government-run plan.”

4) When newsmakers and sources use the term “public option” in our stories, there’s not a lot we can do about it, since quotes are of course sacrosanct.

You’ve heard all the excoriations on the tax cut compromise, here are the facts

• Working families will not lose their tax cut. A typical working family faced a tax increase of over $3,000 on January 1st. The framework agreement includes a mutually agreed upon solution to the impasse over taxes by extending the 2001/2003 income tax rates for two years and reforming the AMT to ensure that an additional 21 million households will not be hit with a tax increase.
• $56 billion for unemployment insurance extension. According to the Council of Economic Advisers, passing this provision will create 600,000 jobs in 2011 alone.
• $120 billion payroll tax cut for working families
• $40 billion in tax cuts for our hardest hit families and students
• 100% expensing for businesses next year
• Child Tax Credit: The $1,000 child tax credit will be extended for two years with the $3,000 refundability threshold established in the Recovery Act. This extension will ensure an ongoing tax cut to 10.5 million lower income families with 18 million children.
• Earned Income Tax Credit: The Recovery Act included an expansion of the EITC worth, on average, $600 in additional assistance to families with 3 or more children. It also helped working married families by reducing the marriage penalty in the EITC. Continuing this tax cut  for two years will benefit 6.5 million working parents with 15 million children.
• American Opportunity Tax Credit: The Recovery Act included a new, partially refundable tax credit of up to $2,500 to help students and their families cover the cost of college tuition. This deal fully extends AOTC for two years, ensuring that more than 8 million students will continue to receive this tax benefit to help them afford college.
• A 2-year extension of the R&D tax credit and other tax incentives to support business expansion. 

You decide 

What worries us is that Karl Rove is endorsing this deal along with many others on the Republican side whilie Democrats are livid.  In a balanced negotiated deal both parties walk away a little unhappy.  However, when one party is swinging from the chandeliers and the other is about to jump off a cliff the deal is probably not balanced.  So prominent GOPers accepting this proposal from this White House after rejecting every single idea for the past two years is probably a signal that something is  afoot in Denmark.

Though we will not be jumping all over the President about the tax cut compomise like most other progressive sites and pundits there is an issue within the compromise that needs to be fixed.

In fact, the only groups likely to face a tax increase are those near the bottom of the income scale — individuals who make less than $20,000 and families with earnings below $40,000.

[snip]

Although the $120 billion payroll tax reduction offers nearly twice the tax savings of the credit it replaces, it will nonetheless lead to higher tax bills for individuals with incomes below $20,000 and families that make less than $40,000. That is because their payroll tax savings are less than the $400 or $800 they will lose from the Making Work Pay credit.

“It will come to a few dollars a week,” said Roberton Williams, an analyst at the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center, “but it is an increase.”

Mr. President, if true, this really cannot stand given the tax cuts for the wealthy included in the compromise.

Statement by the President on Tax Cuts and Unemployment Benefits

Room 430

Eisenhower Executive Office Building

6:32 P.M. EST

THE PRESIDENT:  Hello, everybody.  Sorry to keep you waiting. 

For the past few weeks there’s been a lot of talk around Washington about taxes and there’s been a lot of political positioning between the two parties.  But around kitchen tables, Americans are asking just one question:  Are we going to allow their taxes to go up on January 1st, or will we meet our responsibilities to resolve our differences and do what’s necessary to speed up the recovery and get people back to work?

Now, there’s no doubt that the differences between the parties are real and they are profound.  Ever since I started running for this office I’ve said that we should only extend the tax cuts for the middle class.  These are the Americans who’ve taken the biggest hit not only from this recession but from nearly a decade of costs that have gone up while their paychecks have not.  It would be a grave injustice to let taxes increase for these Americans right now.  And it would deal a serious blow to our economic recovery.

Now, Republicans have a different view.  They believe that we should also make permanent the tax cuts for the wealthiest 2 percent of Americans.  I completely disagree with this.  A permanent extension of these tax cuts would cost us $700 billion at a time when we need to start focusing on bringing down our deficit.  And economists from all across the political spectrum agree that giving tax cuts to millionaires and billionaires does very little to actually grow our economy. 

This is where the debate has stood for the last couple of weeks.  And what is abundantly clear to everyone in this town is that Republicans will block a permanent tax cut for the middle class unless they also get a permanent tax cut for the wealthiest Americans, regardless of the cost or impact on the deficit.

We saw that in two different votes in the Senate that were taken this weekend.  And without a willingness to give on both sides, there’s no reason to believe that this stalemate won’t continue well into next year.  This would be a chilling prospect for the American people whose taxes are currently scheduled to go up on January 1st because of arrangements that were made back in 2001 and 2003 under the Bush tax cuts.

I am not willing to let that happen.  I know there’s some people in my own party and in the other party who would rather prolong this battle, even if we can’t reach a compromise.  But I’m not willing to let working families across this country become collateral damage for political warfare here in Washington.  And I’m not willing to let our economy slip backwards just as we’re pulling ourselves out of this devastating recession.

I’m not willing to see 2 million Americans who stand to lose their unemployment insurance at the end of this month be put in a situation where they might lose their home or their car or suffer some additional economic catastrophe.

So, sympathetic as I am to those who prefer a fight over compromise, as much as the political wisdom may dictate fighting over solving problems, it would be the wrong thing to do.  The American people didn’t send us here to wage symbolic battles or win symbolic victories.  They would much rather have the comfort of knowing that when they open their first paycheck on January of 2011, it won’t be smaller than it was before, all because Washington decided they preferred to have a fight and failed to act.

Make no mistake:  Allowing taxes to go up on all Americans would have raised taxes by $3,000 for a typical American family. And that could cost our economy well over a million jobs.

At the same time, I’m not about to add $700 billion to our deficit by allowing a permanent extension of the tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans.  And I won’t allow any extension of these tax cuts for the wealthy, even a temporary one, without also extending unemployment insurance for Americans who’ve lost their jobs or additional tax cuts for working families and small businesses — because if Republicans truly believe we shouldn’t raise taxes on anyone while our economy is still recovering from the recession, then surely we shouldn’t cut taxes for wealthy people while letting them rise on parents and students and small businesses.

As a result, we have arrived at a framework for a bipartisan agreement.  For the next two years, every American family will keep their tax cuts — not just the Bush tax cuts, but those that have been put in place over the last couple of years that are helping parents and students and other folks manage their bills.

In exchange for a temporary extension of the tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, we will be able to protect key tax cuts for working families — the Earned Income Tax Credit that helps families climb out of poverty; the Child Tax Credit that makes sure families don’t see their taxes jump up to $1,000 for every child; and the American Opportunity Tax Credit that ensures over 8 million students and their families don’t suddenly see the cost of college shooting up.

These are the tax cuts for some of the folks who’ve been hit hardest by this recession, and it would be simply unacceptable if their taxes went up while everybody else’s stayed the same.

Now, under this agreement, unemployment insurance will also be extended for another 13 months, which will be welcome relief for 2 million Americans who are facing the prospect of having this lifeline yanked away from them right in the middle of the holiday season.

This agreement would also mean a 2 percent employee payroll tax cut for workers next year — a tax cut that economists across the political spectrum agree is one of the most powerful things we can do to create jobs and boost economic growth.

And we will prevent — we will provide incentives for businesses to invest and create jobs by allowing them to completely write off their investments next year.  This is something identified back in September as a way to help American businesses create jobs.  And thanks to this compromise, it’s finally going to get done.

In exchange, the Republicans have asked for more generous treatment of the estate tax than I think is wise or warranted.  But we have insisted that that will be temporary.

I have no doubt that everyone will find something in this compromise that they don’t like.  In fact, there are things in here that I don’t like — namely the extension of the tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans and the wealthiest estates.  But these tax cuts will expire in two years.  And I’m confident that as we make tough choices about bringing our deficit down, as I engage in a conversation with the American people about the hard choices we’re going to have to make to secure our future and our children’s future and our grandchildren’s future, it will become apparent that we cannot afford to extend those tax cuts any longer.

As for now, I believe this bipartisan plan is the right thing to do.  It’s the right thing to do for jobs.  It’s the right thing to do for the middle class.  It is the right thing to do for business.  And it’s the right thing to do for our economy. It offers us an opportunity that we need to seize.

It’s not perfect, but this compromise is an essential step on the road to recovery.  It will stop middle-class taxes from going up.  It will spur our private sector to create millions of new jobs, and add momentum that our economy badly needs.

Building on that momentum is what I’m focused on.  It’s what members of Congress should be focused on.  And I’m looking forward to working with members of both parties in the coming days to see to it that we get this done before everyone leaves town for the holiday season.  We cannot allow this moment to pass.

And let me just end with this.  There’s been a lot of debate in Washington about how this would ultimately get resolved.  I just want everybody to remember over the course of the coming days, both Democrats and Republicans, that these are not abstract fights for the families that are impacted.  Two million people will lose their unemployment insurance at the end of this month if we don’t get this resolved.  Millions more of Americans will see their taxes go up at a time when they can least afford it.  And my singular focus over the next year is going to be on how do we continue the momentum of the recovery, how do we make sure that we grow this economy and we create more jobs.  

We cannot play politics at a time when the American people are looking for us to solve problems.  And so I look forward to engaging the House and the Senate, members of both parties, as well as the media, in this debate.  But I am confident that this needs to get done, and I’m confident ultimately Congress is going to do the right thing.

Thank you very much, everybody.

END