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>> i just want to thank you for your courage to be here in spite of how painful it is. and we're just trying here to do what we can do to save lives. >> that was the senate judiciary committee hearing today on assault weapons ban that was introduced last month, a bill that beltway common wisdom says cannot pass, don't even bother. but after sandy hook elementary school, are things different now? are they different from the way politics and the national will were after columbine and after virginia tech and after tucson and after aurorer ra? they looked and sounded a little different in the sena...

Majority to take this on. should we take heart from this kind of statement coming from the speaker's office? >> i would say no because the only thing the house managed to pass last week was a bill that restored the sequester cuts to defense and which did some incredible damage to social programs by getting rid of the social services bloc grant meaning meals on wheels eliminated and things like that. that was essentially a bill that dealt with spending. the house has proposed extending all of the bush tax cuts for all income levels. that is something that cannot pass the senate. so i'm not sure...

House of what might be achievable in dealing with the house of representatives. >> but won't the republicans just all vote for the million dollar cutoff and then say that's the best deal we can get? i hate to be cynical, but they'll obviously choose the softer way out only affecting a few people. there's only, what, 400,000 people in the country that make $1 million a year. so that's a nicer crowd to go after than to go after the far larger crowd. so won't they just try to signal the easy way out and then say that's the only way out? >> reporter: well, by taking the vote in two steps, one on t...

We expect that there will be a house vote on the ideas put forward by the speaker, the so-called plan "b" on thursday. that's a way to sort of put a marker in the sand of what can be passed through the house. that is both a message idea as well as a tactical move to try to send a signal to the white house of what might be achievable in dealing with the house of representatives. >> but won't the republicans just all vote for the million dollar cutoff and then say that's the best deal we can get? i hate to be cynical, but they'll obviously choose the softer way out only affecting a few people. t...

To send a signal to the white house of what might be achievable in dealing with the house of representatives. >> but won't the republicans just all vote for the million dollar cutoff and then say that's the best deal we can get? i hate to be cynical but they'll obviously choose the softer way out only affecting a few people. there's only, what, 400,000 people in the country that make $1 million a year. so that's a nicer crowd to go after than to go after the far larger crowd. so won't they just try to signal the easy way out and then say that's the only way out? >> reporter: well, by taking th...