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Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D, told me this morning on “This Week”  that while all options should be on the table to address gun violence, President Obama’s reported plans to curb shootings are ”way in extreme” when I pressed her this morning on the kinds on measures she could potentially support.

 “I think you need to put everything on the table, but what I hear from the administration – and if the Washington Post is to be believed – that’s way, way in extreme of what I think is necessary or even should be talked about.  And it’s not going to pass,” said Heitkamp, a member of the National Rifle Association.

Heitkamp, who has an “A” rating from the NRA and was elected in a state that Gov. Mitt Romney won by nearly 20 points, stressed the importance of addressing mental health as part of the effort to curb violent shootings.

Read a transcript of the full interview with Sen. Heidi Heitkamp HERE.

“Let’s start addressing the problem.  And to me, one of the issues that I think comes, screams out of this is the issue of mental health and the care for the mentally ill in our country, especially the dangerously mentally ill,” she said. “And, so, we need to have a broad discussion before we start talking about gun control.”

The renewed effort to address gun violence by the White House comes after 20 children were shot and killed last month in Newtown, Conn.

Rep. Joaquín Castro, D-Texas, who joined Heitkamp on “This Week” added that addressing mental health issues surrounding gun violence would be just part of trying to solve the problem of violent shootings.

“And many folks who have said that mental health and mental illness is an issue, I agree with that.  But at the same time, many of those folks — and not to speak to the senator’s position — but many of those folks have also slashed funding for mental health care for mental illness,” he said. “And they’re unwilling to close the gun show loophole, which would allow anyone, whether they’re in a gang, whether they’re mentally ill, to go in and buy a gun with no background check at all, including the Bushmaster and the AR-15, which we know have caused problems.”

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Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell. R-Ky., Sunday said he will not accept any new revenue in future deals with congressional Democrats and President Obama.

“The tax issue is finished.  Over. Completed,” McConnell told me on “This Week.” “That’s behind us. Now the question is what are we going to do about the biggest problem confronting our country and that’s our spending addiction.

“We didn’t have this problem because we weren’t taxing enough,” McConnell added.

He blamed Obama and Democrats for waiting to resolve budget issues until the last minute.

Read a transcript of the full interview with Sen. Mitch McConnell HERE.

“Why we end up in these last-minute discussions is beyond me. We need to function,” McConnell said. “I mean, the House of Representatives, for example, passed a budget every year.  They’ve passed appropriation bills.

“The Senate Democratic majority and the president seem to like these last-minute deals.”

McConnell said that the biggest issue facing the country in the next year is the deficit and spending. And he predicted that the issue would occupy the congressional agenda in the first three months of the year, overtaking Obama’s other priorities, including gun control.

“But the biggest problem we have at the moment is spending and debt,” McConnell said. “That’s going to dominate the Congress between now and the end of March.  None of these issues, I think, will have the kind of priority that spending and debt are going to have over the next two or three months.”

On the expected nomination of former Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., as the secretary of Defense by Obama, McConnell said he would evaluate Hagel’s past statements before determining whether he could support his nomination in the Senate.

“I’m going to take a look at all the things that Chuck has said over the years and review that, and in terms of his qualifications to lead our nation’s military,” McConnell said. “The question we will be answering if he’s the nominee, is do his views make sense for that particular job?  I think he ought to be given a fair hearing, like any other nominee, and he will be.”

McConnell, who in 2008 praised Hagel for his clear voice and stature on foreign policy and national security, now says he will reserve judgment on his possible nomination until after a Senate confirmation hearing.

“I’m going to wait and see how the hearings go and see whether Chuck’s views square with the job he would be nominated to do,” he added.

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Toni L. Sandys/The Washington Post via Getty Images

After a stand-off that came down to the wire, Congress finally passed a bill to avert the fiscal cliff earlier this week. The bipartisan legislation passed the Senate in the early morning hours of the New Year by an overwhelming margin of 89-8. Later that day it passed in the House by a vote of 257-167.

Many of you wondered how the legislation- which was signed into law by President Obama on January 2^nd, just before the new Congress was sworn in- will affect you?

Christine tweeted the following question: “I made roughly $150,000 during 2012, can you tell me how much my taxes will go up?”

Brenda Lopez asked: “How does [the deal] affect unemployment benefits?”

And Philip Lipper wrote in on Facebook: “Why would the Republicans vote a deal that didn’t cut spending $1? It would seem it was political suicide with the base?”

Thanks for all of your great questions. Please keep them coming on Facebook and Twitter. I’ll see you tomorrow on “Good Morning America,” and Sunday on “This Week,” where I’ll have an exclusive interview with the man at the middle of the fiscal cliff negotiations, Mitch McConnell, along with a powerhouse featuring George Will, Robert Reich, Gwen Ifill and Greta Van Susteren.

Brooks Kraft/Corbis

Asa Hutchinson — the former congressman who will lead the effort by the NRA to place armed security guards in schools across the country following the Newtown, Conn. shooting that left 20 children and six adults dead — told me this morning on “This Week” that gun control efforts would not be part of the “ultimate solution” to gun violence.

“I would make the point when it comes to more restrictions on firearms in our society, that if we go down that path, we’re going to miss the focal point of providing safety.  I think that is really the wrong debate to have.  We’ve had an assault weapon ban previous in our history, ” said Hutchinson. “You had school violence continue.  It’s not restricted to weapons.  You think of Timothy McVeigh, he used fertilizer to conduct his mayhem.  So I would rather focus on the safety side, what can we do to better secure and protect our children at school.”

Hutchinson echoed the argument put forth by NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre on Friday that armed guards were critical to the security of  school children and pushed back against criticism from Republican New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who said schools should not be turned into “armed camps.” But Hutchinson compared the need for security in schools to airline security.

Read the full show transcript here.

“Let’s compare this back to the federal air marshal program on airplanes.  There was intense debate that on airplanes, guns have no place, and yet we have a federal air marshal program that I helped to oversee, and which has provided a deterrent,” he said. “It has increased the safety of the airlines, and it’s not like it’s an armed camp when you go on the airlines.  It’s a very discreet use of armed guards that has a presence there to protect America.”

“I think that when you look at school safety, you’ve got to put armed guards into the equation.  I’ve made it clear that it should not be a mandatory law, that every school has this.  There should be local choice, but absolutely, I believe that protecting our children with an armed guard who is trained is an important part of the equation,” said Hutchinson.

I pressed Hutchinson on why he opposed the idea of a solution that incorporated both elements of gun restrictions and armed security at schools, but he was skeptical of that approach.

“I think it takes away — it — whenever you pass those kind of laws, you think, well, we’ve done something.  We’ve somehow made our children more safe, so you go home.  I don’t think the job is really accomplished anything if you take that approach,” he said.

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(ABC News)

National Rifle Association board member and president of Americans for Tax Reform Grover Norquist said on Sunday that President Obama and Democrats are politicizing the Newtown tragedy by pushing for gun control.

“We ought to calm down and not take tragedies like this, crimes like this, and use them for political purposes,” Norquist told me on “This Week.” “President Obama has been president for four years. If he thought some gun control could solve this problem, he should have been pushing it years ago.”

“Democrats had a majority in the House and a supermajority in the House and the Senate for the first two years that they were in office. If they thought that this was really an important issue they might have done something then. They didn’t,” he added.

Read a full transcript of this week’s show HERE. 

On Wednesday, Obama announced that Vice President Joe Biden would head a task force of leaders from across the country to evaluate solutions to reduce gun violence.

Norquist endorsed the recommendation made by NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre at a press conference on Friday to place armed guards in schools across the country.

Other members of the political roundtable pushed for what they called “common sense” gun laws.

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Newark, N.J. Mayor Cory Booker, who is a member of the pro-gun control group Mayors Against Illegal Guns, said that there is more agreement than disagreement on measures to stop the mentally ill and criminals from acquiring weapons.

“I don’t know if anybody here has seen somebody shot – I have,” Booker said. “I don’t know if anybody here has had to put their hand in somebody’s chest, and try to stop the bleeding so that person doesn’t die—I have. What frustrates me about this debate is that it is a false debate.”

“Most of us in America including gun owners agree on things that would stop the kind of carnage that is going on in cities all across America,” Booker said, adding that loopholes that allow criminals to buy guns in “secondary markets” should be closed.

Get more pure politics at ABC News.com/Politics and a lighter take on the news at OTUSNews.com.

Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan said that LaPierre’s suggestion that the effect of a violent culture on the mentally ill has contributed to increased gun violence, but she believes that Congress should pursue some gun control measures.

“I am for the banning of the extended magazines and extended clips,” Noonan said.

Editor and Publisher of The Nation Katrina vanden Heuvel said that focusing on the mentally ill is a distraction from the issue of gun violence.

“The mental illness argument has been used to evade action,” vanden Huevel said. “More guns and bullets, more dead children.”

Pam Ramagano tweeted asking “What can the president really do? Doesn’t he need the approval of Congress to do anything?”

Kevin Boutelle wondered “What about the support that is so desperately needed for the mentally insane?…Those that would still do harm to others regardless of the weapon they wield? Where is that “task force”?”

And @ViPearson asked “Do you think that the media is partly responsible for the violence…?”

Excellent questions, and here are the answers:

Keep the questions coming via Twitter and Facebook. I’ll see you tomorrow on GMA and Sunday on This Week.

(ABC News)

While Supreme Court watchers ponder how justices will come down in the debate over gay marriage, ABC’s George Will said Sunday on ABC News “This Week” it’s clear where public opinion is headed.

“There is something like an emerging consensus,” Will said, noting voters in three states recently endorsed same-sex marriage initiatives. “Quite literally, the opposition to gay marriage is dying.  It’s old people.”

Democratic strategist James Carville agreed the 2012 election marked a “profound” shift on the controversial issue.

“Look in Salt Lake City, the 12 Apostles.  The Mormon Church after the election says, well, ‘Maybe we’re going to change our position on homosexuality is a choice. You’re not born that way,’” he said. “I mean, the effects of an election reverberate all the way through society.”

On the table is a case challenging Proposition 8, the hot-button 2008 California ballot measure restricting marriage to opposite-sex couples. The Court will also hear a challenge to a provision of the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which defines marriage as between a man and a woman.

New York Times columnist and Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman said the Court’s decision to take on gay marriage could have a major impact on upcoming elections.

“It’s actually a positive [for Democrats],” Krugman said. “This is a significant bloc of voters that will make a decision based on which party they see as being favorable to equal rights.”

But Republican strategist Mary Matalin said there are other issues at play.

“There are important constitutional, biological, theological, ontological questions relative to homosexual marriage, but people who live in the real world say the greatest threat to civil order is heterosexuals who don’t get married and are making babies,” Matalin said.

“That’s an epidemic in crisis proportions. That is irrefutably more problematic for our culture than homosexuals getting married,” she added.

Currently, gay marriage is legal in just nine states and in the District of Columbia — but polls suggest support is growing. A recent ABC News-Washington Post poll found 51 percent of Americans support gay marriage, while a recent Pew poll shows national support at 48 percent — up from 35 percent in 2001.

“To me, the consensus has already emerged on this issue,” said ABC News’ Matthew Dowd. “It’s just a question of … is the Supreme Court going to catch up and follow that wind of the pack, or get ahead of it or put a block in the path of it?”

Watch George Will’s comments here:

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(AFP/Getty Images)

Outgoing Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s decision about whether to run for president in 2016 will be key to the makeup of the Democratic and Republican fields in 2016, ABC News political analyst Matthew Dowd told me Sunday on ABC News’ “This Week”.  And James Carville – former strategist for President Bill Clinton – said Democrats are relishing the possibility that she’ll enter the race.

“I think that, whether or not other Democrats run, it’s all going to pivot off of her.  And even the Republicans to a degree are going to pivot off what she does.” Dowd said.

(Read a transcript of today’s show HERE.)

With Clinton’s popularity across the board surging in the four years after her first run for the presidency, Carville says that the consensus among Democrats is that Hillary Clinton would give the party its best chance to win.

“I don’t know what she’s going to do, but I do know this:  The Democrats want her to run.  And I don’t just mean a lot of Democrats.  I mean a whole lot of Democrats, like 90 percent across the country,” Carville said. “We just want to win.  We think she’s the best person and shut it down.  And that’s across the board.”

But Republican political adviser – and Carville’s wife- Mary Matalin said it’s unlikely the Secretary of State would be able to clear the field.

“I wish she would run. But it defies human nature to think that Democrats, even though they are redistributionist and utopians, would not be competitive, that [Virginia Senator Mark] Warner or all these other Democrats who’ve been waiting in the wings are going to have a dynasty, since Democrats are always complaining about these dynasties, they’re going to have another Clinton step up, and everyone’s going to go, yeah, step back?  I don’t think so,” Matalin said.

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(ABC News)

Republican Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) told me Sunday on ABC News’ “This Week” that he is willing to accept tax rate increases as a component of a fiscal cliff deal, as long as Democrats put “significant entitlement reform” on the table.

“What we ought to be working on is the other 93 percent, because even if you do what [Obama] wants to do on tax rates, you only affect 7 percent of the deficit,” Coburn said. “What we have done is spend ourselves into a hole, and we’re not going to raise taxes and borrow money and get out of it.”

“And so will I accept a tax increase as a part of a deal to actually solve our problems?  Yes,” he said.

(Read a transcript of today’s show HERE.)

But his Republican colleague in the House, Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas), disagreed.

He said that Republicans shouldn’t vote for a tax increase which they believe will harm the economy.

“No Republican wants to vote for a rate tax increase,” Hensarling said. “I mean, what that is going to do, according to the National Federation of Independent Business that commissioned a study by Ernst & Young, is cost 700,000 Americans to go from having paychecks to unemployment checks.”

Hensarling said that President Obama pulled a “bait and switch” on Congressional Republicans by adding a demand for tax rate increases after the election.  In 2011 Obama had suggested that $1.2 trillion could be raised by closing loopholes and pursuing tax reform alone, without raising rates.

“The president, again … if he would do what he said before the election, as opposed to the bait-and-switch, what Republicans feel like is a little bit like Charlie Brown running to kick the football and Lucy pulls it away,” Hensarling said.

He added that Obama’s proposal to eliminate future Congressional votes to authorize an increase in the debt ceiling was “surprising.”

“I must admit, I didn’t know the president could surprise me once again, but to say that he no longer wants to have a debt ceiling — in other words, we no longer need even a speed bump on the — on the highway to bankruptcy — I mean, let’s look at Greece,” Hensarling said. “Greece has been very adept at increasing their debt ceiling.  And now they have 25 percent unemployment, 50 percent youth unemployment.”

Democrats on the panel, Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-Arizona) and Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) maintained that entitlement reform should be addressed only after tax cuts are extended for middle class families.

“Right now, the only thing I hear, the only thing we see is middle-class families being asked over and over again to be the ones who have the burden in solving this problem,” Stabenow said. “And we’re saying no.”

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Theo Wargo/Getty Images for HBO

It was a busy week in Washington with news on the fiscal cliff negotiations and the potential appointment of Vogue’s Anna Wintour as an ambassador.

Lynn Hannigan wrote via Facebook to ask “Wasn’t the election clear enough that the majority of Americans were in favor of returning the tax amount back to when President Clinton was in office for the wealthy? Why does Boehner insist on not raising taxes on the wealthy?”

And Paula Caravella wanted to know “Why is the legislative group going on a break when this is going on? They were sent to Washington to do a job and they should stay in Washington…No breaks until this matter is resolved. Period.”

On the [possible] celebrity ambassador front Linda Finnegan asked “What could the editor of a fashion magazine, such as Vogue, bring to the table to represent the United States as an ambassador?”

And Carole Del Monte weighed in to defend Wintour writing “I’d bet she’d make a great ambassador. Anyone who questions this should remember Shirley Temple Black, who performed her job well.”

As Del Monte pointed out Wintour, should she be appointed, would not be the first famous diplomat. In addition to Shirley Temple Black, Sidney Poitier also holds that title.

Take a look:

Keep your questions coming via Facebook and Twitter. See you tomorrow on “GMA” and Sunday on “This Week.”