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President Barack Obama said Friday that he dropped a widely criticized plan to scale back tax benefits for college savings accounts because the savings weren't worth it.

Obama, who revealed that he uses the 529 savings accounts for his own daughters, said he looked at reducing the tax savings because the accounts tend to be used by "folks who were a little more on the high end." He says other taxpayers struggled to save enough to participate.

Obama initially planned to use the savings of about $1 billion over 10 years to help fund his proposal to make two years of community college free for all. "Our thinking was you could save money by eliminating the 529 and shifting it into some other loan programs that would be more broadly based," Obama said.

But he quickly backed off after lawmakers from both parties objected.

"It wasn't worth it for us to eliminate it," Obama said. "The savings weren't that great. So we actually, based on response, changed our mind and are going to be paying for the two years of free community college with other sources."

Obama's remarks were his first on the matter since the White House announced the shift last week. They came in response to a question from a woman from the crowd of nearly 400 who said she uses the accounts to help her grandchildren.

The president mixed politics with the personal as he touted his higher education agenda while talking about his own experience as a one-time student and the father of a daughter on her own college hunt.

In response to a questioner who asked about help paying the rising costs of books, Obama said he understood the problem all too well after having to buy his own at undergraduate and law school.

"I addition to the bonds of love, we had the bonds of debt. Our net worth was negative," Obama said.

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Obama spent most of his remarks focusing on the power of religion for good around the world, but also the rise of extremists who twist religion to perpetrate violence. But he opened his remarks by welcoming the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan leader whose presence at the same event as the President could prompt a diplomatic fuss from Chinese leaders

"[The Dalai Lama is] a powerful example of what it means to practice compassion who inspires us to speak up for the dignity and freedom of all," Obama said.

The Tibetan spiritual leader was in the audience but was not slated to speak and the White House declined to say whether the two leaders will meet at the event. The Dalai Lama's attendance also drew demonstrators outside the Washington Hilton, where the event is held, some calling for a "Free Tibet" while others protested the Dalai Lama, accusing him of religious intolerence.

An encounter between Obama and the Tibetan leader would be the fourth meeting of the two leaders. And each encounter proves an exercise in diplomatic finesse, with the White House always stressing it does not support Tibetan independence from China while also expressing concerns over human rights in the disputed region.

Previous meetings have prompted Chinese officials to accuse the U.S. of meddling in its domestic affairs.

Speaking after Sister Mary Scullion, an advocate for the homeless in Philadelphia, and Kent Brantely, the doctor who contracted Ebola while fighting the epidemic in West Africa, Obama honed in on the contradiction between religious do-gooders and extremists who twist their religion for evil.

"We see people inspiring people to lift up one another to feed the hungry and care for the poor and comfort the afflicted," Obama said. "We see faith driving us to do right but we also see faith being twisted and distorted. Used as a wedge or worse, sometimes used as a weapon."

Obama spoke out against the terrorism "from a school in Pakistan to the streets of Paris" and the rise in anti-Semitism in Europe, all "so often perpetrated in the name of religion."

"No god condones terror," Obama said. "We have to speak up against those who would misuse His name."

Obama also emphasized the importance of freedom of religion throughout the world and the need to preserve the separation of church and state in the United States.

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Obama lauds Dalai Lama

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