Tavis Smiley, the syndicated talk show host who has been a vocal critic of President Barack Obama’s policies on behalf of African-Americans, will bring his national “poverty tour” to Chicago this weekend, putting the spotlight on economic hardships in the president’s hometown.
The tour, organized by Smiley and Princeton professor Cornel West, is the latest effort by the two to highlight what they see as deficiencies in the Obama’s administration and to force the president and Congress to pay more attention to poor people who have been hit hardest by the recession.
The events, scheduled for Sunday in Joliet and Chicago, come on the heels of the deal approved Tuesday by Congress to raise the country’s debt ceiling while allowing for at least $2.1 trillion in spending cuts over 10 years. Smiley called the legislation, signed by the president, “a declaration of war on the poor.”
“I don’t understand how the president could agree to a deal that does not extend unemployment benefits, does not close a single corporate loophole and doesn’t raise the taxes on the rich,” said Smiley. “The poor are being rendered more and more invisible in this country. Nobody, not the president, not the Republicans in Congress, is speaking to the truth of the suffering of everyday people.”
After signing the legislation, the president said he would now return his attention to job creation and called for Congress to consider several measures including the extension of middle-class tax cuts. The president also has called for higher taxes on the wealthy.
“We can’t balance the budget on the backs of people who have borne the biggest brunt of this recession,” the president said. “Everyone is going to have to chip in. It’s only fair.”
Smiley and West have planned town hall meetings in 16 cities, from Washington to Memphis, where families will have the opportunity to talk about their difficulties making ends meet. When the tour ends Aug. 12, the men will continue to use their national public radio program, “Smiley & West,” as a platform to keep the conversation going through the November elections, they said.
A couple of hundred people, mostly black and Latino warehouse workers, are expected to attend a private forum Sunday afternoon in Joliet, followed by a public town hall meeting at 7 p.m. at St. Sabina Church, 1210 W. 78th Place in Chicago.