Congress. The legislative stone in America’s urethra.

Senators say they fear the N.R.A. and the gun lobby. But I think that fear must be nothing compared to the fear the first graders in Sandy Hook Elementary School felt as their lives ended in a hail of bullets. The fear that those children who survived the massacre must feel every time they remember their teachers stacking them into closets and bathrooms, whispering that they loved them, so that love would be the last thing the students heard if the gunman found them.

On Wednesday, a minority of senators gave into fear and blocked common-sense legislation that would have made it harder for criminals and people with dangerous mental illnesses to get hold of deadly firearms — a bill that could prevent future tragedies like those in Newtown, Conn., Aurora, Colo., Blacksburg, Va., and too many communities to count.

Some of the senators who voted against the background-check amendments have met with grieving parents whose children were murdered at Sandy Hook, in Newtown. Some of the senators who voted no have also looked into my eyes as I talked about my experience being shot in the head at point-blank range in suburban Tucson two years ago, and expressed sympathy for the 18 other people shot besides me, 6 of whom died. These senators have heard from their constituents — who polls show overwhelmingly favored expanding background checks. And still these senators decided to do nothing. Shame on them.

I watch TV and read the papers like everyone else. We know what we’re going to hear: vague platitudes like “tough vote” and “complicated issue.” I was elected six times to represent southern Arizona, in the State Legislature and then in Congress. I know what a complicated issue is; I know what it feels like to take a tough vote. This was neither. These senators made their decision based on political fear and on cold calculations about the money of special interests like the National Rifle Association, which in the last election cycle spent around $25 million on contributions, lobbying and outside spending.

Speaking is physically difficult for me. But my feelings are clear: I’m furious. I will not rest until we have righted the wrong these senators have done, and until we have changed our laws so we can look parents in the face and say: We are trying to keep your children safe. We cannot allow the status quo — desperately protected by the gun lobby so that they can make more money by spreading fear and misinformation — to go on.

I am asking every reasonable American to help me tell the truth about the cowardice these senators demonstrated. I am asking for mothers to stop these lawmakers at the grocery store and tell them: You’ve lost my vote. I am asking activists to unsubscribe from these senators’ e-mail lists and to stop giving them money. I’m asking citizens to go to their offices and say: You’ve disappointed me, and there will be consequences.

People have told me that I’m courageous, but I have seen greater courage. Gabe Zimmerman, my friend and staff member in whose honor we dedicated a room in the United States Capitol this week, saw me shot in the head and saw the shooter turn his gunfire on others. Gabe ran toward me as I lay bleeding. Toward gunfire. And then the gunman shot him, and then Gabe died. His body lay on the pavement in front of the Safeway for hours.

I have thought a lot about why Gabe ran toward me when he could have run away. Service was part of his life, but it was also his job. The senators who voted against background checks for online and gun-show sales, and those who voted against checks to screen out would-be gun buyers with mental illness, failed to do their job.

They looked at these most benign and practical of solutions, offered by moderates from each party, and then they looked over their shoulder at the powerful, shadowy gun lobby — and brought shame on themselves and our government itself by choosing to do nothing.

They will try to hide their decision behind grand talk, behind willfully false accounts of what the bill might have done — trust me, I know how politicians talk when they want to distract you — but their decision was based on a misplaced sense of self-interest. I say misplaced, because to preserve their dignity and their legacy, they should have heeded the voices of their constituents. They should have honored the legacy of the thousands of victims of gun violence and their families, who have begged for action, not because it would bring their loved ones back, but so that others might be spared their agony.

This defeat is only the latest chapter of what I’ve always known would be a long, hard haul. Our democracy’s history is littered with names we neither remember nor celebrate — people who stood in the way of progress while protecting the powerful. On Wednesday, a number of senators voted to join that list.

Mark my words: if we cannot make our communities safer with the Congress we have now, we will use every means available to make sure we have a different Congress, one that puts communities’ interests ahead of the gun lobby’s. To do nothing while others are in danger is not the American way.

I’m beginning to realize that autoerotic asphyxiation isn’t really the right metaphor for the sequester. Because Congress did rig it up, and if they had pulled off the compromise, I guess it would’ve felt amazing for them. But as usual, they did it wrong, and yet somehow we’re the ones blacking out… while they’re still jerking off.

I realize that the last thing you want to hear on New Year’s Eve is another speech from me. But I do need to talk about the progress that’s being made in Congress today.

For the last few days, leaders in both parties have been working toward an agreement that will prevent a middle-class tax hike from hitting 98 percent of all Americans starting tomorrow. That has been my top priority, because the last thing folks like (those) up here on this stage can afford right now is to pay an extra $2,000 in taxes next year. Middle-class families can’t afford it; businesses can’t afford it; our economy can’t afford it.

Now today, it appears that an agreement to prevent this New Year’s tax hike is within sight. But it’s not done. There are still issues left to resolve, but we’re hopeful Congress can get it done. But it’s not done.

…The potential agreement that’s being talked about would not only make sure that taxes don’t go up on middle-class families — it also would extend tax credits for families with children; it would extend our tuition tax credit that’s helped millions of families pay for college; it would extend tax credits for clean energy companies that are creating jobs and reducing our dependence on foreign oil; it would extend unemployment insurance for two million Americans who are out there, still actively looking for a job.

I have to say that ever since I took office, throughout the campaign, and over the last couple of months, my preference would have been to solve all these problems in the context of larger agreement, a bigger deal, a ‘grand bargain’ — whatever you wanna call it — that solves our deficit problems in a balanced and responsible way, that doesn’t just deal with the taxes, but deals with the spending so we can put all this behind us and focus on growing our economy.

But with this Congress, that was obviously a little too much to hope for at this time. (Laughter from audience.) And maybe we can do it in stages. …Last year, we started reducing the deficit through $1 trillion in spending cuts; those have already taken place. The agreement being worked on right now would further reduce the deficit by asking the wealthiest two percent of Americans to pay higher taxes for the first time in two decades, (and) that would add additional hundreds of billions of dollars to deficit reduction. So that’s progress — but we’re gonna need to do more.

Keep in mind that just last month, Republicans in Congress said they would never agree to raise taxes on the wealthiest Americans. Obviously, the agreement that’s being currently discussed would raise those rates, and raise them permanently. But keep in mind, we’re gonna still have more work to do. We still have deficits that have to be dealt with; we’re still gonna have to think about how we put our economy on a long term trajectory of growth. How we continue to make investments in things like education, things like infrastructure, that help our economy grow.

…I’m willing to reduce our government’s Medicare bills by finding new ways to reduce the cost of healthcare in this country. …There’s still more work to be done in the tax code to make it fair even as we’re also looking at how we could strengthen something like Medicare. Now if Republicans think that I will finish the job of deficit reduction through spending cuts alone — and you hear that sometimes coming from them, that after today, we’re just gonna try to shove only spending cuts at us that will hurt seniors, or hurt students, or hurt middle class families without asking equivalent sacrifices from millionaires or companies with a lot of lobbyists — then they’ve got another think coming.

That’s not that’s gonna work. We’re gonna do this in a balanced and responsible way, and if we’re serious about deficit reduction and debt reduction, then it’s gonna have to be a matter of shared sacrifice. At least as long as I’m President.