President Barack Obama is flying out to Phoenix on Tuesday to loudly talk up home-buying “as another cornerstone of how we strengthen the middle class.”
But he’s quietly directing his Organizing for Action activists in Phoenix to spend most of their energy pushing legislators during the August recess to pass a far-reaching immigration law that could sharply increase economic pressures on the middle class.
Last Tuesday’s campaign-like speech is part of a series of speeches that have taken the president out of scandal-wracked Washington and showcased him as a protector of the middle class, and as the chief salesman for a government-centered economy. The speeches are intended to shape public opinion prior to the fall fights over the budget and in the long run-up to the critical 2014 midterm elections.
The speeches likely won’t shed much light on the president’s actual housing policy, which critics say is threatening to repeat the disastrous housing bubble from 1996 to 2008, in which Obama played a minor but lucrative role.
But the speeches also obscure his role in the immigration debate, and minimize take the media’s attention on his wide-ranging efforts to pressure GOP leaders into passing a transformative immigration bill that could double immigration to 46 million between 2013 and 2033, and create many millions of Democratic-leaning Hispanic voters from 2018 onwards.
Critics say the immigration rewrite swill increase pressure on Americans’ wages and employment opportunities, and so push more Americans toward government dependency and the Democratic Party. Polls show the contents of the pending immigration rewrites are strongly opposed by a large slice of the GOP’s base.
In Phoenix, Obama’s Organizing For America “grass roots” group has scheduled 25 events during the month-long recess prior to Sept. 5.
Fourteen events are just focused on immigration, one on climate issues and two on gun control, and no events are planned to act on Obama’s campaign-style talking-points about the economy or housing.
The remaining eight multi-purpose events include two events that are intended to rally Obamas supports for his Aug. 5 visit, and four meetings at the offices of a local immigration attorney.
The immigration events include four rallies at the offices of a GOP Rep. Matt Salmon.
An Aug. 5 event at Salmon’s office in Gilbert, Ariz., is advertised as “Action August for Comprehensive Immigration Reform.”
“Please show your support and join us for a press conference and petition drive at Rep. Matt Salmon’s office. Let your voice be heard! #TakeittotheHouse!” said the event, described on OFA’s website.
The Aug. 5 events also include an immigration rally at Rep. Trent Frank’s office in Glendale, Ariz.
Other events include seven meetings at a food-bank to gather signatures in support of the proposed immigration expansion, and several phone-banks.
“Every Wednesday in the East Valley we will be at SEIU Hall in Mesa to make phone calls and write letters to publications around important issues such as Comprehensive Immigration Reform, Gun Violence Prevention, and Climate Change. Join us, write a letter, and bring a phone to reach out,” according to OFA.
OFA’s efforts to pass the bill are complemented by large-scale advocacy from allied progressive and business groups. But they’re also being countered by recess advocacy from Tea Party groups and independent groups, such as NumbersUSA and the Federation for American Immigration Reform.
OFA’s website shows the same high focus on immigration in other districts.
In the area in and around the Virginia district held by the Majority Leader Eric Cantor, OFA has scheduled only one non-immigration event, alongside 26 immigration events, according to their website. Twenty-five of the 26 immigration events are 25 “phone banks” where “we’ll be contacting supporters and asking them to let their representatives in the House know that it’s time to fix our broken immigration system,” the site says.
In western Ohio, OFA has scheduled immigration-related protests outside the West Chester district office of House Speaker John Boehner.
“Comprehensive immigration reform passed the Senate, but now it’s up to the House of Representatives to act. Join local supporters for an Action August event on the 5th, where we’ll standing outside of Speaker John Boehner’s office with honk and wave signs to remind him that it’s time to fix our” immigration system,, says the OFA website. Three days later, says the website, progressives will gather at a local Panera coffee shop “to write Letters to the Editor’s of local press about Rep. Boehner standing in the way of Immigration Reform.”
However, Boehner’s area is getting only three immigration related events, alongside three events focus on “climate change,” and two gun-control events.
In the area near Rep. Paul Ryan’s home district in southeast Wisconsin, OFA has scheduled eight immigration events so far, including protests directs at Ryan, Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner, Rep. Peter Roskam and Rep. Adam Kinzinger. It has also scheduled five climate events, one gun control and one Obamacare event.
