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PBS hosts Tavis Smiley and Cornel West, once strong supporters of Barack Obama, are traveling the country criticizing the president for failing to protect the poor during the debt talks. Noted African-American evangelical Bishop Harry Jackson, Jr. agrees that the president has done little to help the poor, but says systemic changes, not more wasteful spending, are necessary to lift Americans out of poverty.

Radio and television hosts Smiley and his PBS Princeton University co-host West, have taken to the road on a 16-city "Poverty Tour." The tour stops at various towns and highlights the plights of the poor while blasting the president for his failed leadership.

During his Wednesday stop in the nation's capital, West told ABC News that President Obama should assert his authority more in order to help the downtrodden. more >>

President Barack Obama is hosting a third annual celebration of the Muslim holiday Ramadan at the White House Wednesday night, maintaining a tradition that Southern Baptist leader Richard Land says rightly affirms freedom of religion for all faiths.

Land reminds Christians and other believers that they can affirm freedom for different religions while still differing with their doctrine.

Obama will lead an Iftar dinner, the meal that breaks the day of fasting, in the State Dining Room. In doing so, he continues a tradition that began annually under President Bill Clinton and was also observed during President George W. Bush’s tenure in the White House. more >>

The U.S. House is ending its venerable congressional page program ostensibly because of cost and technology. But at least one Christian participant in the early 90s asserts it was one of the most invaluable character building experiences of his life.

Ken Archer says the U.S. House of Representative Page Program built his character and made him a leader in his church and in life and expressed disappointment and outrage over the announced closure. In a joint statement, House Speaker John Boehner and Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said it was a tough decision and blamed technology and high costs for the decision to the end the program which served members of Congress for nearly 200 years.

"This decision was not easy, but it is necessary due to the prohibitive cost of the program and advances in technology that have rendered most page-provided services no longer essential to the smooth functioning of the House," the joint release read. more >>

President Obama announced Friday while visiting the Navy Yard in Washington that he was extending tax credits for businesses employing retired service men and women, the silver lining to news of a 9.1 percent unemployment rate and as part of his kick off to a nationwide economic tour.

Days after lifting the debt ceiling, Obama unveiled plans to offer businesses millions of dollars in tax credits and learning programs to employ out-of-work veterans.

The administration is prepared to offer companies two credits: the Returning Heroes credit for able-bodied veterans and the Wounded Warrior credit for those with service-related disabilities. more >>

Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) surprised Congress Monday night when she appeared for the 11th hour debt ceiling vote on the floor of the House of Representatives.

The Arizona congresswoman received at least three long rounds of applause from colleagues as she entered the Capitol building for the first time since she was shot in the head in Tucson in January.

House minority leader Nancy Pelosi recognized Giffords on the floor, saying she is "the personification of courage, of sincerity, of admiration throughout the country." more >>

WASHINGTON – Presidential candidate Michele Bachmann showed off her "titanium" backbone in a National Press Club address Thursday, blasting the president for taking the country's trillion-dollar debt lightly and challenging him to take the lead in coming up with a real solution.

Waving what she said was a letter dated January 6th from Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, Bachman said the president had seven months' notice that America's debt was close to reaching its limit, but did nothing. The president's inaction, she said, is indicative of a reckless attitude that has long been given to the nation's mounting bills.

"Sadly, we haven't reformed the bankrupt tax-and-spend policies that we decried [through] Ronald Reagan some decades ago," she noted. "We have ... merely replaced them with a new and insidious scheme called borrow-and-spend." more >>