Just two days from the second inauguration of president barack obama and preparations are under way to welcome an estimated 600,000 people to the Nations Capital to witness the event. Good morning from washington, d. C. Where we are doing the program this weekend. Our first road trip. Im chris hayes. Algerian Security Forces are in the fourth day of a stand off with islamic extremists Holding Hostages at a gas plant there. At least 12 people including one american have died. In an off camera interview last night with espn notre dame linebacker manti teo strongly denied he had any part in a hoax involving an online relationship with a person he considered his girlfriend who later turned out not to exist. Right now i am joined by four democratic members of the freshman class of the house of representatives. Congressman rick nolan of minnesota, congresswoman Michelle Grisham of new mexico, congresswoman lois frankel of florida, and congressman mark pocan of wisconsin. As president obama prepares to be sworn in for a second term on monday he may be confronting a fundamentally different political dynamic in the new congress. Just yesterday House Republican leaders backed away from threats to use the federal debt ceiling to force cuts in spending agreeing to vote on a new debt limit increase that will last until mid april. The House Republicans new plan would give Congress Time to pass a budget for the next fiscal year. If no budget is passed House Republicans say theyll withhold members pay. In a statement House Majority leader eric cantor said, quote, we must pay our bills and responsibly budget for our future. Next week we will authorize a threemonth temporary debt increase to give the senate and house time to pass the budget. Furthermore if they fail to pass a budget in that time members of congress will not be paid by the American People for failing to do their job. No budget no pay. The president s apparent victory in the debt ceiling skirmish comes three days after the house finally passed a 50 billion aid package for victims of Hurricane Sandy that the white house had proposed. The vote on tuesday was another show of weakness for republicans as the gop leadership let the bill come to the floor despite the fact that only a small fraction of republicans supported it. The bill passed with 241 votes in the house only 49 of which came from republicans out of a total of 240 republicans in the house. The decision to bring the bill to the floor was a violation of the socalled hastert rule named after former Republican House speaker Dennis Hastert who says that a bill should never be brought to the floor unless a majority of the majority can support it. The apparent disunity within the Republican Caucus offered House Democrats the faint hope they might have a bigger role to play in the new congress than as the House Minority over the past two years. The House Democrats new role in fact may prove crucial in the next major legislative battle over gun control. On wednesday the president proposed a package of gun law reforms in response to the massacre in newtown last month. The package is by all accounts the most sweeping attempt to curb gun violence at the National Level since 1994. The president took a number of executive actions immediately but the most contentious members including a proposed limit on ammunition magazines, stronger background checks and reinstatement of assault weapons ban will be left for congress to decide. These are some of executive actions i am announcing today. As important as these steps are they are in no way a substitute for action from members of congress. To make a real and lasting difference, congress, too, must act. And Congress Must act soon. All right. We have heard a lot about the political strength of the nra. There was a lot of discussion about whether the president would follow up the speech, the moving speech at the memorial with some kind of executive and legislative component and so i guess my first question to you is how what were you anticipating you would see from the president . Was this more or less than you thought you would get out of him . Well, i was glad to see the executive orders. We needed to do something and congress hasnt been exactly the best at acting in the last session, so im hopeful we can deal with bigger, broader issues when we actually get to some legislation but im glad the president took the initiative and really took the lead. That leadership effort is critical. If we can continue that kind of relationship you get the president , the executive branch saying this has got to occur, this is what needs to occur, lay out a format giving congress then a renewed opportunity to pass reform legislation that is going to make a difference in the lives of all of our constituents. I felt very proud of the president and now the congress has to step up to the plate because you cannot just rely on executive orders. Ill tell you, my son was a United States marine artillery officer, so guns are part of my family, but i was an urban mayor. I had to deal with gun violence all the time and i saw it doesnt just shatter lives of families but completely disrupts neighborhoods. This is, to me, an important issue for a lot of people. Is it something you want to see prioritized though . One of the things that is interesting to me is the president right now is at his highest Approval Rating in a while. This is the natural ebb and flow. It usually builds up after winning reelection. There are a lot of things in the agenda space. You pay off a limited budget right . You can purchase things with that political capital. The horror of newtown is such that it has forced this issue to the foreti particularly in the wake of aurora. If you were designing the agenda in the absence of that and obviously you cant do that is this something that you want to see prioritized or are there other things you would put ahead of it . No. This is something that needs to be prioritized. Of course the whole issue of sequestration and raising the debt ceiling limit, getting the budget under control, are probably our highest priority at this point in time. We should be meeting four and five days a week in committee doing the job that we were elected to do and the Republican Leadership has not set a schedule that we can do that. The whole gun control issue has been on the front pages now for decades and the democrats, republicans, none of us have really done anything about it. So i think the president is spot on. He is right where the American People are. People in this country want to see a ban on assault weapons. They want to see a ban on these high capacity magazines. They want to see background checks. They want to see Better Mental Health care services. And that is where we need to go and where the country wants us to go. We should be able to chew gum and walk at the same time. I believe the country is crying out for us to take action on making life safer in this country and reducing gun violence. I would like to see us prioritize getting people back to work. I dont think weve been talking enough about that. Thats right. Lois is right. I think the reality is that we can do all of this. We should be attending the reality is we should. Not that we do. Right. And thats what people want. They want us to work on these issues. Theyre expecting that were spending real time and energy making a difference, moving the economy, getting people back to work and taking care of social issues making a difference. The fact that we dont is the reason in fact that we continue to have the lowest Approval Ratings in the history of congress. Yes. I want to get to that but i want to stay on guns for a second. My sense is and i read the statement your office put out for instance supporting say the assault weapons ban, and i believe you are all supportive of that right . Yes. You, congressman have a district in which i dont think it will give you much grief in your reelection. You represent the great city of madison, wisconsin. But you both had very contested races. You know, sam stein wrote a great piece in the huffington post. Going back and talking to members who were around in the 94 assault weapons ban who really did get blindsided by what the cost of that vote was in terms of the nra coming after them. I want to play a clip of jim moran talking about the nras political power. Take a look. That this is going to happen, it is going to have to happen from the bottom up. You said it must come from the bottom up. What do you mean by that . What i mean is that there are 300 of my colleagues in the house who have an a rating from the nra. I think most of them are frankly intimidated by the nra because they know that the nra responds not so much to its membership but to the manufacturers, the people who pay the executives salaries. And the reason theyre intimidated is that the nra has shown that it will spend unlimited amounts of money in their district whether to defeat them in a primary or a general election. Are you worried about that . Im concerned that were not doing enough to protect families, not only in my district but across the country. Its clear to me that the platform today on doing something about gun violence is making sure were protecting gun owners rights, were clear about all the Outdoor Activities and your personal Public Safety are not being minimized but, rather, every aspect. I was at that the steering and policy democrats Budget Hearing for on newtown. And i dont ever want to have to talk to a parent or a family who is affected ever again about this kind of gun violence that we didnt do everything in our power to make a difference here and this is the right balance of those two issues lawabiding responsible gun owners, their rights protected and doing everything we can to secure those weapons already out there and do something about preventing the access to weapons whose only purpose is to harm a human being. I was at that same meeting and it was very, very hard to keep composure because i we had sitting in front of us some of the families of newtown who as people spoke were basically hysterical, crying. You know, most people think that gun violence is never going to affect them. I think what newtown, you know, has a new awareness, but i will tell you this. When i was mayor, you would have gang shootings, well, im not a gang, and so its not going to affect me. But here is what happens. If a shooting occurs in a neighborhood, any neighborhood, the whole neighborhood is in fear. Right. And i could tell you the phone calls i would receive, the visits to my office. So gun violence does affect everybody. I want to ask you, though, about what whether the threat of the nra has been inflated, whether it is part of what is interesting is youre all coming to this new. You dont have the scars of 1994. Well talk about that after a quick break. Id like to thank eating right, whole grain, multigrain cheerios mom, are those my jeans . [ female announcer ] people who choose more whole grain tend to weigh less than those who dont. Multigrain cheerios [ female announcer ] for everything your face has to face. Face it with puffs ultra soft strong. Puffs has soft, airfluffed pillows for 40 more cushiony thickness. Face every day with puffs softness. [ male announcer ] dont just reject convention. Drown it out. Introducing the allnew 2013 lexus ls f sport. An entirely new pursuit. [ nyquil bottle ] just reading your label. Wait. You relieve nasal congestion . Sure dont you . [ nyquil bottle ] dude [ female announcer ] tylenol® cold multisymptom nighttime relieves nasal congestion. Nyquil® cold and flu doesnt. Congressman nolan you were just saying during the break youre already meeting the wrath of the nra. Well, i am. I grew up and represent northern minnesota. That is real gun country. Most people up there never get their first chicken and roast beef until theyre 19 or 20. They grow up on fish and venison. The deer hunting opener, the duck opener. Those are sacred holidays. Those are when families get together and everybody goes hunting and up until me there had never been a someone who supported any kind of gun control thats been elected to that district. But theres been a big change in national sentiment. Not only are people in urban areas concerned but people in rural areas are, too. They understand that you dont need an Assault Rifle to shoot a duck or to protect your home. So the last three or four days of this last campaign wayne laperriere, the head of the nra, was in my district going from town to town with my opponent. Anybody in my district that had ever gotten a hunting license got three or four calls saying nolan is going to take your guns away, which is not true. Im a big Second Amendment supporter. I hunt. I fish. We have guns. Everybody in our family and our neighborhood has guns. So i think theres been a big change in the national sentiment. Hum. Those who were timid about maybe supporting gun control but were afraid politically need to get over it. I think people want some controls. You just cant allow this kind of gun violence to continue without trying to do something, chris. But let me say this, though. I want to get your reaction to this, all right . The story of the politics of guns, particularly in the first term of the president , is a story that back before the president , which is basically democrats after the assault weapon ban, particularly after the 2000 election in which it was the story that got told was the gun control legislation cost them precious seats, cost al gore tennessee, he would have been president if he had won tennessee, etcetera. There was a kind of retreat. It just wasnt a priority. We werent legislating on this issue. And i remember doing shows where we played, you know, the Nra Convention where wayne laperriere and people are saying barack obama has a secret plan to take your guns away. Right . Oh, yes. He is just biding his time. Sure he is not doing anything now but if you reelect him how is it not the case that this new initiative has not confirmed retroactively the worst kind of paranoid fears of the gun folks at the nra and the gun owners of america saying, look. These democrats, they may talk nice on guns but theyre going to pounce as soon as they get a chance . The nra is showing their secret agenda which is to help gun manufacturers and help the Republican Party not gun owners. It is really how we talk about it back in our districts. In wisconsin the packers and hunting are like, you know, extensions of family values. Yes. And no one is trying to take away your hunting rifle. No one is trying to stop your personal protection. Thats right. When you talk about the types of weapons and measures the president and Congress Need to do it is entirely different. If were frank with our constituents and tell them the truth nra is doing plenty to define themselves right now. I say let them keep pushing. You guys sound genuinely unafraid of the nra. Yes. This is a class and a new era of having the courage to stand by your convictions. Can there be repercussions . Of course. But thats why were here, right, is to stand up for what we believe in, to represent our constituents in the country in a way thats meaningful, and i am excited about those kinds of opportunities. I think mark is exactly right. Talk to your constituents about what these actions really mean and were going to have to do a much better job about communicating those issues. I tell you what. I could not look a constituent in the eye just like i couldnt those families in newtown and say to them, i cant help you because im afraid of the nra. Right. Thats ridiculous. Chris, i think it would be a mistake, however, to under estimate the kind of toxic effect that the nra is having. I have never, ever in all my life feared for my security. And im not fearful of it now. But im a little more than i ever had been before. Weve been getting a lot of not very thinly veiled threats and calls into my office. You know, things like you tell nolan he better watch his back. Nobody has actually come out and said theyre gunning for me but the messages are quite angry, vitriolic, and a little bit frightening to people at my front desk who have been taking the calls. Im a little nervous about it. Ive never been nervous before. They are very toxic in the effect theyre having on the american public. All of you may get a chance to vote on actual Gun Legislation if the precedent thats been set in the last two or three weeks in the house continues which is a remarkable precedent and augers well to be a member of the minority in the house which has not been a very happy place. Fair enough. For quite a while. We have seen in the last two weeks two different votes that were brought to the floor that did not have a majority of republican support, the fiscal deal that was the last day of the last congress and the sandy supplemental which i talked about in the opening. This violates the socalled hastert rule, Dennis Hastert had this idea only bills the majority support should come even if you can get 300 votes for the thing it shouldnt come up to the floor because youre the party that controls the house. Heres hastert himself speaking about why that rule is important. When you start making deals where you have to get democrats to pass the legislation, youre not in power anymore. When you start passing stuff that your members arent in line with all of a sudden your ability to lead is in jeopardy because somebody else making the tune, the president is making a decision or pelosi is making the decision or theyre making the decision in the senate. When you give up that responsibility you give up your ability to govern and i think thats the problem. I want to ask you all what this means for the legislative agenda of this house Going Forward rig