come to contribute. i think in the criminal side of things where i was practicing -- and this is my question for tracy. you had mentioned you see particularly closer to elections judges sort of become more law and order focused. and yet the prosecutors are not the ones donating the money. and so i sort of have a question as to how that actually works. because we don't have any money to contribute. it's the defense bar that has a fair amount of money. so i can see sort of on the civil side where certainly money may play a larger role, but the criminal side i sort of have a hard time seeing how those studies would actually validate the suggestion that the campaign contributions do have an impact, but as a more general matter it would seem to me that there's very little actual distinction especially sort of county levels where everyone knows everyone and the judge can look at the list of who's contributed.

it doesn't really matter whether or not it's the campaign committee that asks or the judge that asks, the judge is going to know at the end of the day who his friends are and who are not his friends. so i'm curious again, sort of why, you know, there has not been more of a move to, you know -- florida passed these laws to solve this problem but it doesn't seem like this particular law solved the problem and especially when you thing about the massey case, i think there was a trip to the south of flans involved in that one, too. so the issue seems to be not so much the direct solicitation but the campaign contributions. >> the criminal defense or the criminal case findings are not as direct in effect as the effect in cases involving law firms and say tort suits mass litigation businesses and business disputes between individuals or businesses as defendants in tort cases. in those cases the hypothesis is and what they're test is a direct effect.

a business gives, a law firm gives, it does better in court subsequently or similar firms, similar businesses do better in court subsequently. behind criminal's rights is instead that if a business wants to oppose you or a law firm wants to oppose your re-election, typically the best argument to the public is not you're against the position that favors my business favors especially if you're a plaintiff's lawyer favors plaintiffs' lawyers, the best argument is you're not law and order. this is in fact, what we see. so the funding behind campaigns to unseat judges is funding from entities typically indifferent to criminal cases, but they recognize that the best ad is about a criminal case. that's the theory behind it because you're certainly right. prosecutors are not substantial donors to judges and many states

are not allowed to donate in fact to judicial campaigns. >> i just want to add something. one of my colleagues at the marshall project christy thompson just did a long piece last month on this issue judicial elections in the campaign ads that rise up against them. and you're dealing with one of the most cynical components of campaigns and especially judicial campaigns. and the idea that these business interests who care about tort reform or who care about jurisdiction or liability or other issues aren't going to come to consumers of news and television and papers and say, you know, let's band together and reduce the liability. they're going to come and say, you know this judge is soft on child sex offenders. and, you know, those ads are more and more pervasive even as there is this countermovement in this country i think, to be a

little bit more sensible about crime and the dramatization of crime. that's going in one direction, these ads are going in the other direction. obviously they're effective because they're pervasive in all of these states. if they weren't working they wouldn't be happening. >> as to why states are barring only solicitation by a candidate rather than also by these committees, correct me if i'm wrong, but i think this is the aba code proposal and reflects an understanding of the first amendment concerns would be far more severe. >> yes sir. >> we're making an increasingly difficult for mr. microphone man to -- pretty soon it's going to be in the ceiling. >> thank you. bill troy from the aba. i'm drawing this question from memory rather than recent reviews so i may be totally off base. as i recall 2 1/2 years ago judge lipman in new york on a

recusal issue put in a threshold of $2500 for campaign contributions for recusal. has that gone into effect and has any of you kind of looked at it and how is that working? >> slightly different. it's not actually recusal. it takes place through the assignment system, so if a judge has received more than $2500 contribution -- and the amount differs slightly based on the level of judges. we elect our trial judges in our intermediate appellate judges and our high court judges are appointed. so if a judge has received that much, the administrative office of the courts automatically assigns the case to a different judge and the judge never even knows that they were potentially getting that case. we are in the process of doing some research on various recusal regimes and trying to figure out ways to assess their effectiveness. so i think it's a very interesting system. it completely removes the discretionary element from the

challenge judge. it takes away any sort of, you know appearance that a judge is a judge in their own case and we think it's a very interesting system. >> sounds like quite an incentive to contribute to judges you don't want on your cases. >> one of the issues with any recusal practice is there is the potential for gamesmanship. and that's one of the reasons why it is so effective to design a really effective judicial regime. >> and there are systems that will add that gives the opposing counsel the option of keeping the judge in case they're conflicted. so that's an option. >> an easy one for you. >> thanks so much for bringing this event together. my name's michael beckel, i'm a reporter at the center for public integrity here in washington, d.c. and in terms of this notion of candidates doing the direct solicitation versus their campaigns, judicial races are not something i'm quite as

familiar of as say federal candidates running for office. so i was curious how professional are, you know, we've got these 39 states that have different things. you know in all of these cases, are we assuming that there's a judge, there's a campaign manager, there's a pressure or are in some cases some of these races really just sort of one person operations and what's a practical difference versus the dpan campaign making a solicitation versus the judge making this ask? >> while you guys are thinking of a response to that go online and look at some of the websites. i mean, for example some of the justices in texas, some of the websites that they have up are as professional as -- they're not one person shows. i haven't done any empirical studies, but from what i've

seen, not just in texas but elsewhere, they're often very sophisticated operations because there's more money available. i mean, it's an investment, right, if you're a judge and you want to stay a judge or if you're a judicial candidate and you want to stay a judge that's part of the price of doing business which ironically is something that the donors are saying, that they want to get something for what they pay for and they expect to get something for what they pay for. my sense is just from writing about it a couple years ago and last year, it's a very sophisticated operation at this point in most cases. >> and i say there is a big difference between states and between races so we've documented many state supreme court races are just multimillion dollar affairs. they are huge sophisticated well-funded expensive operations. going down to say, the case we're discussing today you might have a much smaller affair

where not much money is raised and spent in a case and perhaps you could have a very small campaign committee of only a couple people. one thing i would say is it doesn't seem especially onerous to require an aspiring judge to read the rules and follow them. if they are unable to do that, i think we should question their fitness to sit at the bench. >> we've stumped you? no more questions? well, great. we appreciate you being here this morning and listening to us and hopefully you guys have taken something out of this and we'll be around after to answer any questions.

friday american university's public affairs institute host a conference including remarks by university president neil kerr win on lobbying and the regulatory process. watch it live at 10:00 a.m. eastern time here on c-span3 and at c-span.org. friends, colleagues countrymen, especially the people of ohio's 8th congressional district thank you for resending me here and let's today welcome all of the new members and all of their families to whatty with all know to be a truly historic day.

>> today is an important day for our country. many senators took the oath this afternoon. 13 for the first time. and a new republican majority accepted its new responsibility. we recognize the enormity of the task before us. we know a lot of hard work awaits. we know many important opportunities await as well. >> follow the gop-led congress and see the new members. the best access is on c-span television, c-span radio and c-span.org. new congress, best access on c-span. republican charlie baker has been sworn in as massachusetts' 72nd governor. in his inauguration speech he talked about education and economic development. this is a half hour.

>> thank you. thank you. thank you very much. thank you. thank you. mr. president and members of the senate, mr. speaker, members of the house of representatives, lieutenant governor polito, members of the governor's council and the cabinet, welcome, folks. chief justice from the judiciary, constitutional

officers, constitutional officers elect, thank you for being here. former governors, well swift, romney former senator scott brown, governor christie governor raimondo distinguished guests angela menino and jen soluchi. i've known and admired you both for many years, and i always really appreciated the joy and the integrity your husbands brought to public service. there were lessons there for all of us. thank you very much for being with us today.

to my fellow citizens and other distinguished guests my thanks to all of you for being here. it is with great humility and high honor that i assume the office of governor of the commonwealth of massachusetts. now, i'm well aware of the authority and privileges that come with this office but they're inconsequential in comparison to the responsibility of serving and protecting the people of this great state. and the obligation to always live up to that trust. the people have vested me with the title of governor for the next four years. but i'm also the holder of a number of other life-long titles that i'm proud of. son, brother, husband father

and neighbor. those titles have shaped the values and the vision that i bring to the corner office. that bible that bible that i placed my left hand on a few minutes ago is the same one my mother held for my father 46 years ago when he was sworn in as assistant secretary under then u.s.-transportation secretary john volpe, former massachusetts governor. in a moment like this, there's no way to thank your parents for all they've done for you except to say, dad, i love you and mom both. i am very much who i am today because of you, and i wish mom could be here to see this.

i especially want to thank my wife lauren. for her love for her counsel, for her sense of humor and her endless support. i knew when we got married 27 years ago that i was a lucky guy. but after 27 years and three wonderful kids, i know that i am truly blessed. on behalf of the people of massachusetts, i want to thank governor deval patrick for his service over the past eight years and wish him godspeed.

i want to sincerely thank all our public safety officers, first responders and corrections officers for the work that they do. it's a service that's always challenging and at times very complicated and with very few exceptions these men and women do it every day with great skill and professionalism. i also want to thank and salute all those men and women from the commonwealth who have or are serving in our country's armed forces. since 9/11 -- since 9/11, many citizens of massachusetts have answered our nation's call to service and serve with distinction. and when men and women serve so do their families and we muss never forget that.

as governor, these men and women and their families will always be in my prayers. mayor walsh, i want to thank you for giving us this opportunity to participate in this event today in your city. and we wish you nothing but the best of luck in your service on behalf of the people of boston and the years ahead. to the people of france our thoughts are with you during this difficult time. our commonwealth is filled with hardworking, talented and inspiring people. we're a global leader in health care biotechnology, high

technology, education finance, energy efficiency and advanced manufacturing. and we've led the way for this nation on issues ranging from health care quality to reform equality. some of our toughest challenges have been ignored lost amid the successes or become the equivalent of kicking a can down the road because they're not politically convenient or easy to fix. from having 1500 homeless families assigned to hotels and motels, dozen of lapses in performance that are frustrating for many and in some cases devastating in consequence. i know we can do better. the time has come to write the next great chapter in the history of this great commonwealth.

to build on what makes us great and get much better and what doesn't, lieutenant governor polito and i have created a talented diverse, experienced bipartisan cabinet and staff. they will approach their message with a passion and a thoughtfulness to make massachusetts great, and they understand the policy pronouncements without follow-through amount to empty promises. former mayor tom menino taught us all many valuable lessons. he believed government was about high ideals. but he also equally believed that basic services mattered and that every detail counted. when people have to wait for hours to conduct a simple transaction at the registry, they're not being served.

when thousands of families continue to be confused and let down by the health connector, we're not paying attention to the details. those are but two examples. we will challenge the status quo. we will look for and try new approaches. we'll recognize they may not always work and when that happens we'll acknowledge it learn from it and try again. i believe our actions will be heard in many ways but the loudest of these actions will initially be in dealing with immediate budget deficit building a job creating economy everywhere in massachusetts, closing the achievement gap in education and fighting opiate addiction and revitalizing our urban centers.

with respect to the state's budget, no one understands better than i do that our constitution requires that it be balanced. that responsibility now rests with us. history will record a budget deficit exceeding half a billion dollars is being transferred to our administration. if we're honest with ourselves, we can't blame this deficit on a lack of revenue. we have to recognize that this is a spending problem and that dealing with it now will make balancing next year's budget that much easier. we will hold the line on taxes we're already demanding enough from our hard working people.

and we will protect cities and towns and fulfill our promise to end the cut ss in local aid. otherwise, everything's on the table. we look forward to working with house speaker dileo senate president rosenberg and members of both legislative branches to close this gap. while there are efficiencies to be gained and structural changes to be made there's no doubt we have to make difficult decisions and we will work collaboratively to do so with great sensitivity and careful judgment. but growth is the biggest solution to any budget problem. we have a 5.8% -- we have a 5.8% unemployment rate here in massachusetts. but that's a cold-hearted

statistic that ignores the 200,000 people seeking work, the hundreds of thousands of underemployed and the tens of thousands who have dropped out of the workforce altogether. and there's no single initiative that can start and sustain a job creating economy, but there's clear evidence that we're too complicated, too expensive, too slow to move and make decisions and on this we must and can do better. our administration will work to reduce red tape, streamline regulatory requirements on start-ups and establish businesses and we'll report regularly on our progress. health care costs are an enormous burden for everyone. they drag down our collective ability to grow and hire more people. be will pursue many paths on this one, but the simplest insuring full price and performance transparency is long

overdue. the same service in the same neighborhood with the same outcome with the same person can vary in price by as much as 300%. this must change. there's also a direct link between economic growth and sustainable affordable supplies of energy. as we begin this new year families and businesses across new england are being hit with unprecedented increases in their energy and electric bill. at exactly the same time energy prices are falling across the rest of the country. this increase is being driven in lark part by inadequate delivery systems, the result of poor planning and coordination. i look forward to working with my colleagues here in massachusetts and the legislature and people like governor raimondo of rhode island and the other governors to solve this problem while we

continue to reduce our carbon footprint. now, i'm the proud product of massachusetts public schools, and to this dayic still name almost every teacher i had growing up. they moved me, they challenged me and they made me feel like my opinion mattered. across massachusetts -- go for it. across massachusetts, there are many talented and inspiring educators doing for their students what their predecessors did for me. i was in lawrence yesterday, karen and i were both there, witnessing firsthand the progress that's been made in just a few short years there. and despite all their issues, and they have many, a renaissance is under way in their public schools. attendance is up dropout rates are down. test scores and graduation rates

are up. the school day is longer and lawrence is hardly alone. there are exceptional schools in many of our most disadvantaged neighborhoods throughout the commonwealth proving they can get it done for kids no matter what their circumstances. but other schools really do need to step it up. for the children and the families that they serve. poor performance given the dramatic success other schools have demonstrated, can no longer be tolerated. while traditional public schools will always be the backbone of our education system, we need more high performing public charter schools especially in underperforming school districts to complement them.

as i speak today there are 45,000 bay state kids and their parents on waiting lists for these schools. 45,000. it's wrong for any of us to stand on a front porch or in a city neighborhood sympathizing with a mom or a dad when they tell us their child's not getting the education to succeed in life that they deserve and then oppose lifting the charter school cap or making the kinds of changes that are being made in places like lawrence to ensure that every school is great. last year, governor patrick called opiate addiction a public health crisis. he was right. it is a crisis. it's one that cuts across every community in the commonwealth. several months ago i met john

and stephanie green of easton. after a routine medical procedure their 19-year-old son evan was prescribed opiates for pain. slowly and unknowingly he became addicted to them. when the prescription ended he turned to heroin. over a period of years john and stephanie tried as hard as any parents could to help their son, who was in agonizing yet all-too familiar story. tragically, evan fatally overdosed almost a year ago to this day. now, as a parent, my heart goes out to john and stephanie for their devastating loss. as governor, i intend to tackle this problem head-on because too many families --

thank you. thank you. because too many families have gone through the grief and pain that john and stephanie have gone through. i look forward to working with attorney general-elect maura healy, boston mayor marty walsh and many others on this issue. because without strong action, many more individuals and families like the greens will have that same terrible experience. now, when lieutenant governor polito and i complained last year we said we were chasing 100% of the vote. based on the results this

morning, we clearly didn't get it. but we campaigned hard in many communities of color, and we did so because we believe these neighborhoods have not benefited from the economic success that has become more commonplace in other parts of the commonwealth. but there are inspiring points of light in these communities because individual economic development, education, community development and social service entrepreneurs are turning so-called lost causes into definite winners. my friend in the commonwealth's new secretary for business development nam pham and the folks at v.a. have worked with their neighbors to literally turn their neighborhood in

dorchester into a community on the move where families want to live. robert lewis junior at the base and roxbury has attracted millions in scholarships from colleges across the country. those scholarships are designated for the young men from communities of color who participate in his baseball and mentoring program. and the kids at united teen equality center up in lowell, they're turning gang members into productive citizens through programs like their culinary institute. when you talk to them about their success, their enthusiasm to do more is contagious. our problem is not that no one has figured out what works it's just the opposite. the entrepreneurs and leaders that i just mentioned as well as many others i met during the course of our campaign crack the code. our got just hasn't had the will and the foresight to support

what they're doing and do more of it. the tragic events in ferguson and new york speak loudly. and their message is a simple one. when people lose hope bad things happen. i've said a thousand times i want every community to be a place where people believe tomorrow is going to be better than today. and i say it -- and i say it not just because i believe it but because i believe in it. the great writer and philosophy samuel johnson once said the natural flights of the human mind are not from pleasure to pleasure but from hope to hope. put another way, if you think things are heading in the right

direction, then you believe in and can't wait for tomorrow no matter where you might be today. and that faith in tomorrow needs to be based on something beyond -- no offense meant to my good friend dennis calhoun or to bishop foxworth. the quality of the schools to send your kids to the parks they play in, the main streets you can walk to and from your house or apartment, the job you have and the future it offers to you and your family, it's weird to avoid the tragedies that make the front page like ferguson and those that don't like the awful shooting death of don joffierre. and it's imperative that we redouble our efforts to provide everyone, no matter where they live, with the kinds of opportunities that exist in this commonwealth.

as noted on the plaque on the front of this rostrum, 54 years ago tomorrow, john f. kennedy stood where i stand today when he delivered a farewell address to the general court of massachusetts before traveling to washington, d.c. to become our 35th president. in that address he said success in public service should be measured against four historic qualities. it's right there.

courage, judgment, integrity and dedication. the president-elect defined these qualities for his time in office. today i offer them as this administration's compass in the years ahead to redefine our team. first, we must have courage. set partisanship aside and embrace the best ideas and solutions no matter which side of the aisle they come from. second, we must have judgment to make our government as

efficient, responsive and innovative as it can be. third, we must have integrity to ensure accountability and transparency because when we make honest mistakes, they must be acknowledged and corrected. and finally we must have dedication to serve the best interests of the public and only the public. it's undeniable that the ability and responsibility to make a real difference in the lives of people a growing and competitive economy, quality and affordable education for all of our kids responsible forward looking environmental policy as well as strong and safe communities lies with and within us. if we approach our work every day with courage, judgment, integrity and dedication, only by working together will we make

massachusetts great. and with your help, i know we will. god bless you. god bless the commonwealth of massachusetts. thank you.

on the next "washington journal" congressman tom cole of oak, talks about tax and budget issues being taken up in the new congress and the challenge to speaker boehner. then congressman keith ellison of minnesota, co-chair of the progressive caucus on his legislation to bolster the dodd/frank financial regulations. "washington journal" live every

morning on c-span where we'll take your calls and comments on facebook and twitter. with live coverage of the u.s. house on c-span and the senate on c-span2, here on c-span3 we complement that coverage by show youing the most relevant public affairs events. then on weekends it's the home to american history tv with programs that tell our nation's story including the civil war's 150th anniversary, visiting battlefields, american artifacts, touring museums and historic sites, history book shelf, the best known american history writers, the presidency looking at the policies and legacies of our nation's commanders in chief. lectures in history with top college professors delving into america's past and our new series, real america featuring archival matter. c-span3 created by the cable tv

industry and funded by your local or cable satellite provider. president obama has been invited to deliver his annual state of the union address before congress on january 20th. the president has been giving an early look at some of what's in the address by making appearances across the country. on thursday, he was at a high school in phoenix, arizona to announce plans to reduce the cost of mortgage insurance. this is 20 minutes.

hello, arizona. well, hey. happy new year, arizona. go bobcats. i love you back. it's good to be in phoenix. and i mean that because i was in the detroit yesterday which is a great city but it was 60 degrees colder. so it feels pretty good this weather right here. i had a couple staff people who said, we're going to miss the plane. they're just going to try to get stranded here for a while. but you know i went to detroit, i went here, i guess between the lions and the cardinals, this is my post wildcard consolation

tour. as a bears fan, i want you to know that, first of all you guys did a lot better than we did. you got a great coach you got a great team. you had some bad luck. and there's always next year. so keep your chin up. keep your chin up. i want to thank secretary casper not just for the terrific bro dukz but the work he's doing every day. i want to thank your congressman reuben gallego. rubin, i already liked him, then he told me he was from chicago originally before he got snart and moved to warmer weather. i want to thank your mayor stanton. he was here. there he is. he's doing a great job. i want to thank your principal,

john bayer jr. and your superintendent ken scribner. and i want to thank all of the students and staff and faculty who may be here. we really appreciate your hospitality. one last acknowledgment. i had a chance to meet a couple of really good friends. mark kelly and gabby giffords. and this was a remarkable meeting for me because it was four years ago today that gabby and some other wonderful arizonans were gunned down outside a supermarket in tucson. it's a tough day for a lot of folks down there. we keep them in their thoughts and prayers, but gabby is doing great. she looks wonderful and she's got the same energy and passion

that she always has had. even as she waged her own fight to recover, she's fought to prevent the next tragedies from happening to others. he's a hero and a great arizonan. so really proud of her. and her brother who is also an astronaut, her brother-in-law who is also an astronaut is going to be in space for a year. he was just on the cover of "time" magazine which i know there's some folks in washington who wish i was going to be in space for a year, but i'm still around. because i got some work to do. now, i am here because one of my new year's resolutions is to make sure more americans in phoenix and in arizona and all across the country feel like they're coming back. because the country's coming back but i want everybody to feel like things are getting better and we are moving in the

right direction. and let there be no doubt thanks to the steps we took early on to rescue our economy, to rebuild it on a new foundation, america is coming back. and that's not just my own opinion. here are the facts. 2014 was the strongest year for job growth since the 1990s. we've had 57 straight months of private sector job growth, created 11 million new jobs. since 2010 we put more people back to work than europe, japan and every advanced economy combined. american manufacturing is growing at the fastest pace since the '90s. we're now the number one producer of oil, of gas and, by the way, you are saving about $1.10 a gallon at the pump over this time last year.

although i was in detroit and i told folks yesterday, yes, it won't be low forever so don't suddenly start saying you don't have to worry about fuel efficiency. when you go out shopping for a new car don't always think it will be this low because then you'll be surprised and mad at me later. i'll be able to say i told you, don't get a gas guzzler because gas is going to go back up. but while it's low, enjoy it. and feel free to spend some of that money. on local businesses who then will hire more people and put more folks back to work. meanwhile, thanks to the affordable care act about 10 million americans have gained health insurance in the past year alone. we've done all this while cutting our federal deficit by about two-thirds. and i'm going to repeat that

because they did a poll the other day and 70% of people think the deficit's gone up. no, 70% of people. you stop people on the street, 7 out of 10 think the deficit's gone up. the deficit has gone down by two-thirds since i became president of the united states. we've done all this in a fiscally responsible way. and maybe closest to my heart after 13 long years our war in afghanistan has come to a responsible end which means more of our brave troops spent time with their families this holiday season right here back home. so these last six years required hard work and sacrifice by everybody. but as a country we have a right to be proud that all that hard work paid off. america's resurgence is real. now that we've got some calmer waters out there if everybody does their part, if we all work together, we can make sure that

the tide starts lifting all boats again. we can get wages and incomes growing faster we can make sure the middle class is growing that the ladders of the middle class for folks who are struggling are firm, steady and have a lot of rungs to them. it's the working class the working families the power of america's prosperity, that's always been the case that will be true for decades to come. and i've got a state of the union address in about two weeks, and that's what i want to talk about. building on the progress we made. but of course, why wait for the state of the union? it's sort of like you got presents under the tree, you start shaking them a little bit. i want to kind of give you a little sense of what i want to talk about. so we're going to start this week laying out some of the agenda for the next year. and here in phoenix, i want to talk about helping more families

afford their piece of the american dream and that is owning their own home. now, let me just say right now michelle and i live in rental housing. we don't own where we live. we've got two years remaining on our lease. i'm hoping i get my security deposit back. but bo has been tearing things up occasionally. we'll have to clean things up a little bit. but i'll never forget the day we bought our first place a place of our own. a condo, back in chicago. and for us and millions of americans like us buying a home has always been about more than owning a roof and four walls it is about investing in savings and building a family and

planning roots in a community. so we bought this place. it was about -- i guess about 2,000 square feet and in this complex called eastview park. sort of like a railway apartment. and it felt huge when we moved in. and then malia and sasha were born and the toys got everywhere and then it felt small because they took over the whole dining room with their toys. but i have such good memories, not just about the place itself, but all of the work we had to do to save to get in there and then to fix it up and that sense of accomplishment that you were building something for your family and for your future. and that has always been true. when my grandfather came back from world war ii this country gave him a chance to buy his

first home with a loan from the fha. for folks like him, america was proof that if you worked hard and were responsible, it was rewarded. we all know what happened in the last decade when responsibility gave way to recklessness. families who did the right thing and bought a home they could afford and made their payments every month and did everything right, when the market plummeted, they got hurt. even though somebody else was acting irresponsibly whether on wall street or folks who weren't responsible in terms of how they were dealing with their real estate ordinary families got hurt bad. and that was especially true here in arizona. there were folks who borrowed more than they should have, there were lenders who were worried about making profits and whether the people they were lending to could keep up their

homes. so the home values plunged and america sank under water and builders stop building and construction workers lost their jobs. and when i came into office. >> believed we could not let this crisis play itself out. if we could save more families from everything they worked so hard to build, we have to make the effort. so less than a month after i took office i came here to office to lay out my plan to get responsibility homeowners back on their feet. and i said that healing our housing market would not be easy and it would not be quick but we would act swiftly and boldly and try -- everything that we could to help responsible homeowners. if something didn't work we would try something else. we were going to try to keep folks in their homes. and we ended up helping millions stay in their homes. we helped millions more save

thousands of dollars each year by refinancing. we helped folks who didn't want to buy a home or weren't ready to buy find an affordable place to rent. we kept up our fight against homelessness and by the way there are some homeless advocates here. since 2010 we've helped bring one in three homeless veterans off the streets. [ applause ] >> and i want to make sure everybody knows, under mayor stanton, phoenix is leading wait in that effort. phoenix is doing a great job. [ applause ] >> so as a result of all of these efforts, today home sales are up nearly 50% from where they were in the worst of the crisis. home building has more than doubled. that has created hundreds of thousands of construction jobs. new foreclosures are at their lowest level since 2006. since 2012, nearly 10 million

fewer americans have their homes under water. rising home prices have put hundreds of billions of dollars of wealth back into the pockets of middle class families. now i want everybody to be clear, this progress is not an accident. it is not luck it is what happens when you have policies that put middle class families first. [ applause ] >> and what is true in arizona is true all across the country. we still have more work to do. our job is not done. but what we are doing is working and we have to keep at it. we have to stay at it. today, here in phoenix i'm going to take a new action to help even more responsible families stake their claim on the middle class and buy their first new home. starting this month, the federal housing authority will lower its mortgage insurance premium rates

enough to save the average new borrower more than $900 a year. now, that is $900 that go toward paying the groceries or gas or a child's education. or depending on your mortgage, it might be a month's mortgage payment. and for those not familiar with fha, they under writes and guarantees it is the backstop for a lot of loans around the country. especially for middle class folks. so a lot of people pay these fees. and if they are saving $900, that is money that will be going throughout the economy. over the next three years, these lower premiums will give hundreds of thousands more families the chance to own their own home. and it will help make owning a home more affordable for millions morehouse hold

households over all in the coming years. to give you an example, earlier today secretary castro and i nueva villas where peoples are buying homes with the help of the fha. this was a big development that wasn't finished or wasn't all sold. the crisis came. half of the homes were still unsold. folks lost their homes. it started getting boarded up. people were feelingin secure. it was starting to get depressed. nonprofits with the help of hud came in and purchased some of the properties and hired local residents to rehab them and now people are building them. beautiful homesch and. and with the help of fha, we can make sure more people are getting access to their homes and that will mean more money in the pockets of the families like the ones we've met.

is this about housing? all right. so, keep in mind, hundreds of thousands of new buyers will mean a healthier housing market for everybody. how many people here own their own home? so even though you've already got your mortgage or your loan or already have your home, if your neighbors are buying more homes, that is lifting the home market here. which means the value of your home starts going up. and that is good for you. [ applause ] it means -- it means fewer foreclosure signs, as people fix up old prorltperties. it means more construction, which means for jobs an a better economy. so this is the kind of boost we feed to keep the momentum that we have seen over the last

several years, keep it going here in phoenix and all across the country. so i want to be clear. if you are looking to take advantage of these lower rates that is great. on the other hand, don't buy something you can't afford. [ applause ] >> you are going to be out of luck. these rates are for responsible buyers. we're not going down the road again of financing folks buying things they can't afford. we're going to be cracking down on that. we put in place tough rules on wall street and created a consumer financial protection bureau, and we're really policing irresponsible lenders luring folks into buying things they can't afford. and we've designed a mortgage form that is written in simple language, so that people understand what the commitments

are when you buy a home. we're cracking down on some of the worst practices that led to the housing crisis. we're going to protect middle class families from getting ripped off. and that is why we had the justice department fight for buyers who were discriminated against or preyed upon and we want settlement to victims in one year than in the previous 23 years combined. that is why we worked with states to force big banks to repay more than $50 billion to more than 1.5 million borrows who were treated wrongly and that was the largest lending settlement in the history. and that is why i'm called on congress to wind down the government back companies known as fannie mae and freddie mac. we don't think there is anything wrong of pursuing a profit but the day of making bad debts on the backs of others and then getting bailed out after that,

we're not going back to that. we've worked too hard and everything we've done to heal the housing markets we want to preserve. but we do want to make sure that the housing market is strong and that responsible homeowners can get a good deal. or people who have saved, done the right thing, now are looking to buy their first home. we want to make sure they get a little bit of help. in the end, everything we've done to heal the housing market is about more than just restoring housing values, it is about restoring our common values. it is about who we are as a country and who we are as communities. and i want to just tell you a quick story. lorraine kona from sun city, next door, she did everything right. she had a good job as a librarian, she bought a home she could afford and she wanted to retire in that home and made her payments on time. then five years ago, for no

fault of her own, she was laid off and started falling behind if her forward-looking statements s-- behind if her payments weren't coming. she said people were looking at her house. she learned about a program we created for folks like in arizonathat were hit by the crash, and they helped her make her late payments, because she had a great track record until she lost her job and they set her up with financial counseling to stay on track. it wasn't easy, but lorraine repaired her credit and refinanced her mortgage and today after a lifetime of hard work lorraine is retired, back to making her payments every single month and in her home, she was able to accomplish that even though it was scary at times, she got it done. lorraine came back just like phoenix has come back.

just like arizonahas come back. just like america has come back. it is not just the economy turning around. it is turning around the lives of hard-working people making sure that the hard work finally pays off. it is making sure you finally get the job you are looking for or the raise you deserve or a little bit of security or the retirement that you earned or sending your kid to college so their lives are better than yours. that is what this is about. so i just want everybody to know, that we have been through some tough times, but we are moving. there are workers today with jobs who didn't have jobs last year. their families -- there are families who got health insurance who didn't have health insurance any more and there are students in college who didn't

think they could afford it and there are those who served tours, and there are workers building american cars when they thought the shops would close down and america is coming back and the key is to make sure we keep everything going. thank you everybody. god bless you. god bless america. [ applause ] president obama will talk more about the policy initiatives in his state of the union speech when he traveled to knoxville, tennessee on friday. we'll have live coverage beginning at 1:10 eastern time here on cspan3 and cspan.org. and watch our live coverage of the state of the union on tuesday, january 20th.

here are some of the our featured programs for this weekend. on cspan 2, on saturday night at 10:00, on book tv's afterwards cass susstein on the pitfalls of decision making and what to do to avoid them. an then part of the college series. we talk to professors on the influence of hip-hop and the government's efforts to cure malaria during world war ii. and on saturday, on lectures and history, anderson professor brian durk uses abraham lincoln's life for views on life and slavery before and during the civil war. and on sunday, a discussion on birth control and the impact ever margaret sanger on the birth control movement. find our television schedule at

cspan.org. and call us at 202-626-3400 or comments at cspan .organize or tweet us. join the conversation. like us on facebook and follow us on twitter. this is the study of religion and liberty. he talked about morality and free market economics. from the steamboat institute in colorado, this is an hour. thank you very much. what a great event this is. and what wonderful warm people are here. i can barely catch my breath. way up here in colorado. lord acton is the name that we chose as our kind of icon for the acton institute which

attempts to engage religious thinkers to understand the moral foundations of thinks like private property and free trade the important of contract, the rule of law and the like. and acton once said, he said a lot of different wonderful, memorable things, you probably know best of all his statement that power tends to corrupt and corrupt power corrupts absolutely. it is one of the most incorrect quotations in history. people say power corrupts, but it is power tends to corrupt. i had the unenviable task of correcting lady thatcher on that. she just looked down her nose at me and said, ohh. just so. carry on. but acton also said this. he said that liberty -- that liberty is the political end of man. and that is true enough.

the problem arises when we think that the total end of man is liberty. because liberty after all is a vacuum, right? it is not a virtue in itself. i know in the liberty-loving crowd like this you might think i'm heretical pardon the expression. but think of liberty not as virtue or the goal as our lives but in the context in which we can negotiate the goal of our life. and of course the goal of all life is truth. now we'll have different apprehensions, understandings of that truth and we can have some vigorous debates about that. but it is not liberty itself. you don't want to grasp for an empty thing. you have to fill liberty with something. liberty gives us the contempt in which we can choose either virtue or vice.

and i think this is an important part of our movements hartitiage. in fact, it is one of the unique things that the founding of the united states brought into political discussion. because friar prior to that virtually every constitution and political apparatus and construct spoke about some collective or some entity giving rights to people. of course, if you give something to someone you can also take it away from them. but the american founding had this insight which come from a much morainee ancient insight, there was something more inherent in the nature of the human person that comes with the package that he should have liberty or she should have liberty. we recognize rights. we protect rights. we can also on advice kate rights and violate rights.

but every human being has a right to bear. and our move to forget that, to emphasize too quickly the utilitarian benefits of liberty which are manifest in obvious, especially when we compare it to the obvious social wreck of socialism, for the utilitarian benefits of local freedom, to neglect, the anthro poll logical roots, why we have liberty invested in our nature, is to undermine a very important and compelling part of what the movement for freedom is in our nation and indeed in our world. because if we understand there is a common ancestry to all people, i'm going to describe it in a judeo-christian language. i live it to others from different traditions to describe

it in their language, but i basically use a kind of natural law framework a grammar, if you will that will express i think, to any reasonable person why it is that human beings by their nature are right's bearers. and then if we can understand that, then and only then can we build a secure foundation for an understanding of liberty in our age and our generation in our day. if we get the anthropology wrong, anything we construct on top of it no matter how elaborate or seemingly beautiful, will also be faulty. and if you ask me to identify one thing that is at the root of all of the confusion, not only in our politics but in our culture today it is this question. it is the question that the psalmist put forward so many

years ago. psalm 8, what is man that thou art mindful of him and the son of man that thou visited him. if we are simply the sum total of our physical parts then we are a speck of dust upon a speck of dust floating in a cold and cruel universe. but if we are something more than merely our physicality we certainly are physical and that is why we have to respect the utilitarian dimensions of liberty and that is why we have to respect the institutions of politics and culture. but there is something more to us because we were built for something more. we contain within us eternity. i like the way c.s. lewis put it in such a memorable fashion. judy -- judeo-christian terms.

you have never met a mere mortal. everyone who you came in contact, every shop girl who you purchased something, every person you have ever loved or every -- ever hated is an emortal horror or everlasting splendor but you have never met a mere mortal. lewis said in follow up to that, the most sacred thing that presents itself to our senses next to the blessed sacrament is our neighbor. see this is why we must build societies that are not merely free. freedom is necessary. but it is not sufficient. we must have freedom but we need to ask freedom for what? so for a few moments i want to talk about anthropology and talk

about history from a reasonable point of view. and again, i invite dialogue from all perspectives, from secular believers or unbelievers or christians and jews and muslims an buddhists and whatever else. if we can agree on reason here, then i think we can advance the conversation at a deeper level rather than people talking past each other as we so often see in our media today. so we begin with who is man? who are we? the most obvious thing about us is our physicality, isn't it? in the book of genesis, it describes the creation of the world as being good and then the formation of man and woman from interestingly enough the dust of the earth into which is breathed the breath of life. and doesn't that account for the human reality? think about that.

we are the dust of the earth. we are corp oriole, but there is something in each of us that transcends the physical. now we could quote bible verses or theologians, but just reflect on yourself and your grandchild and on human beings. we have the capacity to transcend our physicality, don't we? when we love we transcend our physicality. you give yourself away to the beloved, and what happens? you are not diminished. you are enriched. in our creativity we see this, in art and in business, because it requires an understanding and respect for the physical world and all of the confines that that sets up for us. we live in a world of scarcity.

but somehow we can produce more than we consume. and what is that in the human person? it is our reason, our minds. that is what sets us apart from all of the rest of creation some of which is also sentient and physical. but still does not have the capacity to reason. reason is the thing that distinguishes us from even the most intelligent of the animals. we engage the world by use of our minds and our imagination, our ambitions and our capacity to see potentials. you see, we reflect on ourselves. and we can even -- and no animal can do this -- reflect upon our own reflection. and the result of that is that

we establish a relationship with a material world that is more than physical. animals are bound to the material world by instinct. man is bound to the material world by reason. and because of that, we can create. we auto utilize and take things that have no particular value and shape them in such a way that all of a sudden they become valuable for others. that is the origin of private property, right in our nature. animals don't do that. oh beavers build dams that is true. but they don't build hotels and rent them out to other beavers. [ laughter ] >> see, that creative capacity is an indication of our transcendent potential. and when we only look at ourselves as mere physical entities that live only by our

passions and not by our reason then we find ourselves slaves. the ante this is of freedom. and when we create structures that violate that freedom, including the right to property, which after all isn't just a right to a material object in itself but all of this intelligence that goes into the creation of things, when we allow structures to be built that inhibits that, then we destroy not merely financial prosperity, but we pollute the entire culture, the view of ourselves, the view of others. this is all related to the lowering level of standards of beauty and music and architecture. i mean all of this is of the piece, because you and i are the

apex of the creation of the world. we are the summit of creation. in fact, again now according to a biblical view, it is into our hands that creation has been trusted. we have a stewardship obligation and in order to act faithfully we must be free to bring about a world that is better than what has existed before us. you see, politics is not the ultimate. it is necessary. but if we don't develop a moral vocabulary to speak to our society in moral terms we will not be able to raise the army that will be needed to protect the right of human liberty in our generation and in subsequent generations. and this i suggest to you the assault on the dignity of human life, the assault on reason the assault on the freedom of

worship and religion the assault on the right to private property, the assault on the rule of law, the assault on the right to contract, and association, all of the other similar rights that are interconnected results in the destruction of our civilization, of our culture of ourselves. that is why it is important to always think together about our rights and responsibilities. i like that. in the steamboat statement of principles. rights and responsibilities. not just rights. human beings are not only physical and transcendent, we divisional and relational. think about that. that is another unique thing

about human beings. we are individual, in that the first moment of our existence we were a biological entity different from our mother our dna was different from the womb in which we existed and yet we were in relationship. and after someone is born that anthropology continues. we are still very dependent but now more obviously individual and yet in relationship. and we go through our whole lives balancing those polarities of our individuality and our social capacity. now the error of radical individualism is to think that we don't owe anybody, anything any time. as though we all invented the language we speak right.

we didn't inherit it. or we didn't invent the world in which we come to or that we created it ourself. all of that is nonsense. and yet to not recognize that we are in relationship leaves us isolated. on the other hand, you have the great error of communism. which sees man as having no value except in his value to the whole, to the social to the collective. so that human beings become only a part a cog in a great socialist experiment. you see, if you get the anthropology of either of these wrong, you get the societies upon which they are built wrong. rather, we have to create a -- a society that realized we are individual and social. and the best part of our social reality is our ability to choose where we will invest ourselves.

our ability to choose friendships and fraternity with other people. our ability to help those who are in need because we recognize a part of ourselves there. but to create a society where the state is the dominant indeed at times almost the exclusive actor in social causes, in social remedies, is to exclude not only human creativity and iniative but it is an attempt to distort human nature itself. which is what all of the great collectivist thinkers thought, whether it was carl marx or lennon or hitler or cains. to make it serve an ideological end. rather than what it is the given of what we are, and

deriving from that the ought that we should be and what we can be in our nature. now from my perspective, the best way to approach this philosophically is through the judeo-christian lense. i think the scriptures give us a rich cosmetology understanding. if others have different understanding, i think the scriptures conform to our natural reason about these things. that line in the founding documents that speak about nature and nature's god is precisely the tradition that goes back through the history of christianity into judaism even into the ancient world the romans and the greeks. it is a truth that wise people have thought about over the years. because we understand, specially in an incredible technology sophisticated moment that we are

all experiencing, and honestly probably being very annoyed by often, we understand that it is not just data that we need. with all due respect to sergeant friday, it isn't just the facts ma'am that we need. it is the meaning behind the facts. it is wisdom that we need, not just data. wisdom. and this is the reflection of an integrated holistic view of who human beings are. many of you are involved in the world of work, business. you have many -- literally mundane concerns. mundane meaning daily concerns that occupy your time. and some of ma -- may think well there is no particularly spiritual or poetic dimension to worrying about accounts and how

the factoryies are operating or whatever physical labor you are involved with, you may think that is the world of utility and it has nothing to do with the world of beauty or poetry or morality or transcendence. but that is a mistake and it is a deadly mistake. each human being has a call, a vocation to do something based on who they are and what their different capacities are. none of us are equal. that would mean to be the same. we all have different capacities. one person is a better painter, another is a better thinker another person is a better physician or another better athlete. we're none of us equal. but each of us has this call to be as excellent as we can be with what we can do. and if you only see your

business as a way to meet a bottom line rather than to build a community rather than to promote an epic sense of reel community and society, not the artificial impositions that come from far away away away bureaucracy. if you see yourent prize as a sphere -- your enterprise of the plumes that makes a society operate, if you don't see that then your energy is -- evaporates. but if do you see that then you understand that your mundane day-to-day physical labor can have eternal significance. a french philosopher once put it this way and i wish this phrase

was above every seminary. he said if you want to build a beautiful cathedral like that of notre dame with spires reaching up to heaven, representing the rising of the soul to god, if you want to do something like that you must first understand geometry. and this is the phrase i would love to see above every seminary. piety is never a substitute for technique. for without technique, piety is helpless to use nature for the glory of god. piety is never a substitute for technique. and when you grasp the importance of that idea you understand that integrated into our everyday life are the offers of grace that is in theological

language. again you'll use different language for yourself from your own tradition, but in my tradition, an offer of grace is an offer of relationship with god and there is not one point in the universe that is not offering us this relationship with the transcendent. a monk wrote home to his father after he had been in the monastery for a while and he said, dad, i'm so glad i found my vocation, praying day and night. we get up at 3:00 in the morning, when all of the world is hushed to pray. his father wrote hick back, he said your mother and i are so proud that you found your vocation. but i want you to remember one thing, many a night at 3:00 in the morning when all of the world was hushed, your mother and i rose from our bed to change your dirty diapers.

[ laughter ] >> and in that we found our vocation. imagine that. this is really incarnational. this is understanding. in a baby's diapers, you find your vocation. but if that can be said of a baby's diapers it can be said of your factories it can be said in front of your computer terminal or in front of a blackboard. if god is not on the floor of the new york stom ex-- stock exchange how can he be god among us emmanuel. and that is why politics has a role to play. i'm not a political leader. but the role to play is to create spheres of freedom along with the moral tudoring of a society that is not only free but good as well. a society that understands

itself because its people understand themselves. that our end is more than the physical comfort or the passions indulged in. that we have an end beyond this world. and that is why freedom is a sacred thing. even if it is not the whole answer. i opened with a quote from lord october acton and i would like to close with another quotation. he said liberty is the delicate fruit of a mature civilization. out on the side of the house that i lived in in a religious community a while back, quite a while back now, who we moved in we were doing some repairs and i noticed on the side of the house there was some big tree that went up in the air. and it was taller than the house itself. now i'm from brooklyn new york.

>> yay. >> see, what do we know from trees? no there was a tree in brooklyn once. i think somebody got it. so there is this tree up there and i'm looking up and part of it is in full bloom and part of it is dead. there are dead leaves on it. so i called the tree doctor, who knew there was a tree doctor right? we called the tree doctor and he came and he looked and picked up some of the leaves an picked at the bark and came up to the porch where i was walking him and he said, sorry the tree is dead, we have to take it down. and i said how can it be dead the leaves just came out. and he said, i know, it is an illusion. i said they are really not there? and he said, no, what i mean by that is there is still some of

the sap working its way through the tree. but year after year there will be less and less of that sap because the roots themselves are dead. and you have to take the tree down because in these michigan winters, you could have a good storm and it could blow on to the house. we have to take it down. i think of that as a metaphor for our civilization right now. i do not believe the roots are dead. but they have been sorely neglected, forgotten and infected. many in our culture today live off the legacy of the past. they are just happy with the sap that is running through it right now, but they don't realize that they are not producing more sap. they haven't given the nourishment to the roots because they haven't tended to the root and they don't understand the root an the roots are everything i've said. and the solution to the decay is

going to be to get into those roots and renourish them with the great traditions of the west. re nourish them with a moral appreciation of ourent enter -- enterprise of our government that is limited and not doing for us what we can do for ourselves. we must tend to those roots so that that delicate fruit can survive again in our mature civilization. thank you very much. [ applause ] . >> thank you. thank you, you're very kind. we have some time for q&a. so i really enjoy this kind of

program, especially with you people. >> father, real quick, could you also just make the point that the acton institute despite you being a founder and a priest, is not a catholic organization. >> we work with all different organizations. i'm the co-founder of the institute. but most of the support comes from noncatholics and our out reach is to noncatholic. we have a heavy catholic support but most of it is with protestant and christian orthodox people. and an occasional jewish person and even a few muslims from time to time. and even some secular people who understand the importance of this moral foundation. now this lady is going to ask a question i'm veriy happy to translate because i'm bilingual, i can translate from brooklyn into standard english.

>> father, in the -- >> father. >> yes, of course. >> in the old testament every time israel turned its back on god,ize wale was punished. this country is morally bankrupt. i'm afraid for it, what will happen. can we have a revival of morality not necessarily religion but morality -- in the newspapers we read of hit-and-run accidents every day, this is immoral. this is -- what do you think? can we go back? thank you. >> yeah, i think we can't go back in the sense that we can put the toothpaste back in the tube. and i think sometimes especially conservatives think, all we need to do is revive ozzie and harriet and everything will be all right. obviously there was something wrong philosophically speaking in the 1940s and 50s because it

gave us the 60s and 70s. because there was something wrong there. don't get me wrong i like ozzy and harriet. but i think what we need to do is to do something new today. we need to understand the idiom of our own culture and speak in that language. i'm not talking about curse words, i'm talking about to the values. because people are so confused. i don't think that our society is completely morally corrupt. i think if you live on the coasts, you might think that. you remember when reagan was elected president and somebody in new york, manhattan, said how could this be? nobody i know voted for him. that really happened. so i think what we have to do is be very careful that we're not

buying -- that we're not reading "the new york times" too seriously. because that is like the edit editorial page is often fantasy land. and now the obituaries is curtailed or manipulated to create a certain culture. and our popular media is like that, that is our movies an things. i think we need to look for things that speak to the values that are authentic moral concerns that many people have. and there are a great many of them. children have a -- children have a civilizing effect on people. not on all people. because we hear about children being just put in waste baskets and things like that. but i think as people think to the next generation, they have to think about things that are more solid and reliable. and we have to be creative

enough and win some enough, to be able to articulate the values, not as hostile values to people. we ought not to be and let ourselves be characterized as skulls. the conservatism of going around and telling everybody what to do. we need to be win some and call people to their nature that they know this. and i think it will require a great division of labor that some is people will be involved in politics, others in education, others in the social media, creative writing, art work, all of this kind of thing. but i'm afraid to say that it is much easier to pull apart a toaster than it is to put it back together. and a lot of the toaster has

been pulled apart and is laying on the table with a lot of crumbs. and we just need to think about how this whole thing fits together again. but i look at a room like this and i see people who are dedicated and who are energetic and creative. and i have hope for the future. i'm just not going to let them take it away. >> father bob, over here in the corner. >> i'm a robert by the way. >> okay i'm sorry. you remind me of in this -- and this need i think is national, for another bishop fulton sheen. >> that is a great honor. >> and what you have said today i think more people need to hear and on an ongoing basis. have you given that any thought? >> yeah the last 25 years i

have given it thought. let me say how highly i respect fulton sheen which is why i would never make the analogy between me and him. and that is the example of what i'm talking about. he spoke to the people of his time in the way that the people then could understand him. you know do you know that fulton sheen had a television show. many of you old enough to remember fulton sheen and he i think was the -- i forget what the award was -- the emmys are for television? and he was up against the sunday night lineup i think it was. he and milton burl were up competing against each other and fulton sheen won. and he came up to the microphone and he said, first i would like to thank my writers, matthew,

mark, luke and john. that is what i mean about being win some. but i founded the acton institute to promote myself, but i think in that age sheen -- that that one person spokesperson was an important thing but i think we need something more diverse institutionally and we need a lot of voices saying a lot of things. besides which i don't want to leave this planet and have the work disappear. we're talking about succession planning in our organization so that the next generation that this institution will go on. last june we had a thousand students attend a four-day seminar offering 120 courses. they came from 80 countries with 60 teachers, mentors at this. and next year we'll have more

than that because they recommend others. and one of our facebook pages, poverty cure has about a million and a half "likes" on it. and why is this? because i'm the oldest person on our staff. they are pushing this forward. they understand the social media. now we're not the whole thing. we're a part of it. we try to bring the conversation together. and then enable other groups like steamboat institute and other very good groups to do more than what we are doing. for the foundations of the american republic and everything like that. so we are doing it. and go to our website, acton.org and see the plethora of scholarship and film and materials and curriculum that you can use in your churches and study groups and your organizations. and i pray god, when you go there, you'll see it is

top-quality stuff. it is win some, fun factual innovative and it is on the cusp. >> father, it seems like one of the real dichotomies -- i'm back here. this is god speaking. >> oh. >> between the liberals an the conservatives or the republicans and the democrats, is that the democrats really seem to believe that if we just had taxes higher and higher in order to take care of all of those see sital -- societal ills would be the right goal. would you explain why we have that goal. >> let me offer a few correctives to that. the first is that i would say that the opposite of that error would be the error to think that if all we did was obliterate government, that everything would be fine.

that is not true either right? this is where the social connection comes in. government has its place it should be modest, it should be the resort of last resort. the resource of last resort, not first resort. and the other thing i would say in terms of engaging the question not just a bunch of conservatives talking about this, because we get together and complain all of the time, right? but to say what is it that motivates the progressives to say we need more money? the best motivation as a christian i'm taught to always try, and i am in the confessional all of the time because i don't do this, is to try and believe that that person who is calling for the abolition of private property or something close to it really intends good by it. what are they concerned with? they are concerned with the

vulnerable and the por and disenfranchised. they are concerned with racism and a whole host of things. are they inconsistent in the concern? yes. are they sometimes impervious to arguments that show that too much government creates vulnerabilities? yes. but if we can just take that intention on their part and speak to that intention, then we can say to them something like, it is not that we differ in our goals, what we differ in is in the way to get there. we don't believe that bureau crates or highly complex -- bureaucrats or highly complex political entities know enough of what the need is. it is not the government is too cheap, it is the government is too stupid. and what i mean by stupid, i'm not saying that about individual people, i'm saying that human

freedom, especially as expressed in a market, through prices and things, when those price signals are free you really know what the needs are. if you cut the information flow that comes from the decisions of thousands and thousands of people who are reflecting their subjective needs in the market, based on what they buy and what they sell, what they demand as consumers, if you cut out that free flow of information you make society much more stupid based on that. so we don't really know. we have too many size 13 shoes and not 9 1/2 shoes which is what happened in every socialistic experiment in history. so to speak lovingly and gently to their intentions and try to show them the way out. and then when they don't listen then you shove things down their

throat. something like that. >> i was waiting for that. >> i'm joking. all of the progressives watching on on cspan right now just dropped their chablis all over the couch. >> father, are you a benediction or geezuity. >> i'm a diocese. i've sued people for calling me a jesuit. i forgot we have a jesuit pope. i'm a diocese. >> and my question is barack obama a christian aa jew, a muslim, or a creationalist. >> i have never met him and

dealt with him spiritually, i couldn't answer that question any way, right? but as an outsider, just observing as best i can tell, i think he is what the political demands call upon him to be at any given moment. that is what i think he is. i think that is what he's dedicated to. i say that with all due respect to the president and deep concern for his immortal soul. [ laughter ] >> over here. >> you're laughing i meant it. >> over here. >> oh, yes. >> why is it that we don't hear more moral outrage from the senior leadership of the muslim community, and particularly the imam's. if there were a group of radical

catholics hijacking the religion. >> oh, there is. >> it would be sung from on high from the pope and yet there is the occasional imam that will make a comment but i'm astounding there is not a bunch of it that is -- >> that is a good question. and i've asked that question myself. and it may be that -- and this may not be the whole answer, i'm sure it is not the whole answer. it may be a come bin is of -- combination of things, such as their high arcy construct -- they don't have a one teaching authority, as a book, the koran and the scholars can comment on that but it is very rare that you have scholars who get together and say things. and where you have had groups

say things that arage ore ageage that are authoritative. and on you tube, there is an imam in egypt or iraq, literally crying for the killing of christians that he has seen in his own country. it may be that in certain circumstances they are literally afraid to do that because of the more radical element. here is my admittedly untutored take on the whole islamic thing going on in our country and in our world and that is i desperately want to believe and from my own experience with muslims, do believe that the vast majority of them are trying to live good lives and want to live in societies where people can live in peace and certainly

historically we've seen that possibility. but what islam has not had, and what the church did have, were thinkers like augustin and thomas equine as who took the church and the teachings an the history and applied them to different successive generations, how to develop the church's teachings. and i think it awaits its augustin or thomas. how that would come about, i haven't a clue. for some muslims that would be considered heresy. and i don't have a dog in that fight in the sense i'm not a muslim so i'm not able to make those determinations. but if a peaceful islam were heretical to what we were seeing with isis then i would welcome

the heresy. because i think what you have right now -- and the other thing that islam doesn't have that christianity has, is an equivalent statement to the one where jesus holds up the coin with caesar saiz head on and says pay to caesar what is caesars and unto god what is god's. by authority and power. power is a form of constraint, as is authority. they are both forms of constraint. but power is a form of constraint that is external to the person. in other words, you are coerced from outside. authority is a form of con strapt -- constraint that is interior. so that when someone corrects you and you believe that what they are saying is true even though you don't want to do it you do it because you believe in the authority of the argument or of the person. that is why i would differ with

mrs. cheney in this respect. i think we should be able to tell people what is right and wrong. and you should be able to disagree with me for telling you that. right? this is the wonderful basis of tolerance in society. tolerance is not acquiescence to things you don't agree with or lifestyles you don't agree with. but when you say i don't agree with that, that is when tolerance comes into play, but i will not raise my hand to you. and with islam it does not have the division between authority and power. it is admittedly a theo crattic religion so the government is the authority of god and must be. this is why you have sherry uh-huha law and they have to come up with a another way of nuancing their own theology so the vastly

outnumbering majority of muslims who want to live in a peaceful society can articulate that within their own religion and theology to make these kind of distinctions. >> hi, it really struck me when you said that there is an assault on reason. and for the past few years i file like i've been living in a parallel universe where someone will say black is white and white is black and broek care is working and when you say black is black and white is white and obama care will work and they look at you like you are nuts, how do you deal with that win somely? >> you could make fun of them. i guess that wouldn't be win some. you know let me just make a little bit of a confession, not too much of one. don't get salivating here, but just a little one. i was on the left for many years.

i'm a revert to my catholic faith. hi abandoned that in my teens and i was involved with the political left in california for about four or five years i knew jane fonda tom hayden. oh, you don't like that? well maybe you coloradoans will like that i gave jane fonda a joint in the back of the gay community center. in hollywood. because she said tom won't let her keep it in the house during the campaign. to which i said, fine feminist you are. so maybe that is what makes me a little bit more sensitive. i know these people as people i used to. i don't hang around with jane fonda any more, giving out joints in the back of the gay community. but i know there are many good people and they might not get

the point on where obama care is -- not only isn't functioning yet, it is probably functioning as well as it is going to function right now because it hasn't really completely been unrolled. but to help them understand a little bit about just basic economics. and why, if you just went to a grocery store without any prices on anything, all of the good meat would be taken first and there would be nothing left. in other words, no way to coordinate the thing. and that is the problem with obama care but the nation as a whole. but there are more people here who know much more about that. but i think the question of win someness is a different question than the question of argumentation. in other words, the facts are the facts and we need to present those reasonably. win someness is saying it in a

gentle way that bee speaks respect for the other person. and that can be very disarming. and then it gets to core values where you can have i think a more fruitful conversation. and maybe even a more profound disagreement that may not be disagreeable that may not be disagreeable. i have an edge to me. brooklyn is that edge. but i think we should at least try and do that. >> one question. >> i'll go to this side and then we'll go to you. >> okay thank you. there are many in the conservative movement and perhaps many in this room that believe that conserveatisms need to call a truce that the right-wing conservative, religion right have hampered our ability to win elections.

i'm interested in knowing why you disagree with that and why you think it is important to talk about the social issues and in talking about them can you role model how we should do it taking perhaps abortion and traditional marriage as examples? >> well, first of all, the acton institute respects the division of labor in the conservative movement and the broadly understood right side movement. for that reason, as an institute, we don't deal with a lot of those questions. i mean, on occasion i will sign on to something or speak to something in my capacity as a priest. but i feel there are so many groups that are doing such good work. it should come no surprise to you where i stand on same sex marriage or abortion. but in my work with acton we deal with this lack una we see

an economic understanding among religious leadership broadly understood. i am not convinced -- i think that the same thing applies to the social conservative group as it does to the economic conservative movement, in terms of the need for win someness and respect for other people. so that we need to speak with great love, especially on questions like abortion, because women find themselves in arduous situations very often. not the majority of women are having abortions because they are having abortions their third and fourth abortion but i think we need to speak with -- it is really different as a priest when i get up and preach on abortion in my parish which i do, and contraception, which i do, and i've heard confessions or on