Voters should say the highest priority issue is the income gap. Ask candidates what will you do about it and use your own common sense. Is that the right way to go . We need, as a country, not just from the top down, from across the grassroots, to focus on what we can do to reduce this opportunity gap. E. J. Dionne mr. President , i want you to reflect on this religious question. One of your forced salaries paid for by a group of catholic churches. Not a lot of catholic bishops noticed that. You were organizing or a group of southside churches. You know what faithbased groups can do. Talk about three things at the same time the religious community in calling attention to this problem. The issue as to how government can cooperate with these groups. And the prophetic role of these ideas for you where your own reflections on your own faith have led you. President obama first of all, it is true, my first job was funded through the campaign for human development, the social justice [applause] and i think that faithbased groups across the country and around the world understand the centrality and importance of this issue. In a intimate way. In part because these faithbased organizations are interactive with folks struggling and no how good these people are and are aware of their stories. It is not just theological, it is concrete, they are embedded in communities and making a difference. What we have done is a continuation of work that had been done previously by the bush administration, the clinton administration. The office of faithbased organizations are working on an ongoing basis around a whole host of issues. My brothers keepers reaching out to churches and synagogues and mosques to try to figure out how do we reach young boys and young men in a serious way. But the one thing i want to say is that, when i think about my own Christian Faith and my obligations, it is important for me to do what i can myself, individually, mentoring young people or making donations. In some ways, impacting whatever circles of influence i have. I also think it is important to have a voice in the larger debate. And i think it would be powerful for our faithbased organizations to speak out on this in a more forceful fashion. This may sound selfinterested, because there have been these are areas where i agree with faithbased groups and issues where we have had disagreements around reproductive issues or samesex marriage or what have you. Maybe it appears advantageous for me to focus on these issues of poverty and not as much on other issues. First of all, i will not be part of the election next year. This is more of a broader reflection of someone who has worked with churches and in communities. There is great caring and great concern, but, when it comes to what are you going to the mat for . What is the defining issue . When you are talking in your congregations, what is the thing going to capture the essence of who we are as christians . Or as catholics . That this is often viewed as a nice to have, relative to an issue like abortion. That is not across the board, but there sometimes has been that view and certainly that is how it is perceived in our political circles. I think that there is more power to be had there. A more transformative voice available around these issues. That can move and touch people. Because the one thing i know is that here is an area where arthur and i agree. I think people fundamentally want to do the right thing. People do not set out wanting to be selfish. People would like to see a society in which everybody has opportunities. I think that is true up and down the line, across the board. But they feel it is not possible. And there is noise out there and arguments and contention. People withdraw. They restrict themselves to what can i do in my church or my community, and that is important. Our faithbased groups had the capacity to frame this and nobody has shown that better than pope francis, who has been transformative through the sincerity and insistence he has had that this is vital to who we are. This is vital to following what jesus christ our savior talked about. That emphasis is why we have had such incredible appeal, including two young people around the world, and i hope that is a message that everybody receives when it comes to visitors. I cannot wait to post them because it will spark a broader conversation. E. J. Dionne everything is better with a reference to pope francis. Thank you, so much. [applause] i want to thank arthur and bob, and thank you bob for writing this book, and thank you mr. President for being here, and john and so many others for creating this. If i may close by quoting dr. King, let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream, bless you all. Thank you, mr. President. [applause] congressional lawmakers return from their summer recess congress has until september 17 to vote on the iranian deal. Several senators have announced they support the deal. Six are currently undecided. Follow the senate live on cspan two. Follow the house live on cspan. The house and Senate Return this coming week and get right to work on the iran year deal. Particularly a resolution of disapproval of that agreement. Covering that is laura alber lopez. In the senate, the administration is pretty confident that the democrats are going to be able to protect steel that he has crafted with the p5 plus one. Sots when it happened as far 38 democrats have announced their support for the deal. That is a few shy of the number needed to filibuster. The debate is going to be pretty heated. They will start tuesday and it looks like even if it does pass the senate, democrats will have the votes to sustain a president ial veto. The 56 in opposition is the ranking member. Heres his tweet. This is a close call but i will vote to disapprove. How does his opposition change books i think his opposition very much embodies how difficult this issue has been for all of the senators. All of the congress members, every Single Person whether they come for it or against it has said this has been the most difficult decision to have ever had to make as a lawmaker. Ben cardin didnt really know where he was going to go, so now he is the third of a crowd on top of senator schumer and senator bob menendez to say that he is going to vote against the deal. When it comes down to the numbers and the process, i do not think the administration is going to be sweating it too much because they know they have the votes in the senate to sustain the veto. Getting everybody on board to support the iran deal, the rules Committee Takes it up in the house on tuesday evening for a debate beginning midweek. What does the debate look like in the house and who will some of the floor leaders be there . Laura the house is a bit more fluid right now in the colleague letter that you mentioned. Minority leader pelosi did say that they have well over 100 democrats that have come out in support of the deal, but they need 146 in order to sustain a president ial veto. They are not quite there yet. They have been very aggressive over the august recess and administration has been to make sure that they are trying to get the support that they need. It is going to be very interesting next week. Lets go back to the senate for a second. We didnt touch on the talk of potential for democrats to be able to filibuster, be able to prevent this from ever coming to a final vote. The number they were talking about was 41 with 38 now in favor of the field of the deal. Our leaders indicating at all that they might have the ability to stop this from coming to a final vote . Laura because they are so close to the 41 number, as you said, it will be interesting to see if they decide to do that. People in senator durbins office have said that the democrats are not planning to filibuster, and senator joe manchin, one of the undecided still left there are five undecided democrats left said he would not support a filibuster. The rest that are undecided, because it is such an intense debate, they may not end up getting the vote. Read more at huffingtonpost. Com. Thanks for the update. Coming up on cspan, two conversations from the president ial leadership scholarship program. First we hear from Dallas Mavericks president mark cuban and then from bill clinton and george w. Bush. University,hofstra a look at news Media Coverage of george w. Bushs presidency. Over the summer, president bill clinton and george w. Bush
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