There are so many terrible parts of the housing bill being debated again in the Senate this week, but we’ll follow the lead of the Wall Street Journal and focus on just one: “affordable housing allocations.” We’ve documented before how groups like ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now) have been trying to establish a fund like this for decades and the WSJ details how the current versions of both House and Senate bills would accomplish this: Mr. Dodd creates an annual tax of 4.2 basis points on the …
The latest news out of Capitol Hill is that the Senate will take up legislation enacting a much needed update of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), pushing final passage of the mortgage bailout bill back until after the July 4th break. This should give Senators some much needed time to explore some of the seedier aspects of the bill, including the establishment of a National Housing Trust Fund that has long been the legislative Holy Grail for the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN). We’ve covered ACORN’s …
Today the Senate is scheduled to vote on the housing bailout bill that has been circulating on Capitol Hill for so long its title today is simply “a bill to provide needed housing reform and for other purposes.” When a bill’s title includes the phrase “and for other purposes,” you know the American taxpayer is about to get a raw deal. This bill is such terrible public policy in so many different ways that it’s hard to pick which one is the worst. But we’ll try. Bails out the banks most …
As bad as the incestuous relationship between Sen. Chris Dodd’s (D-Conn.) and Countrywide Financial is, it probably is not even the worst part of the housing bailout compromise in Congress. At least the Countrywide bailout would be a one-time theft of taxpayer money (although this bailout would increase risky behavior that will lead to future bailouts). But an arguably far worse portion of the compromise is the creation of a permanent low-income housing slush fund. As we have documented before, blatantly liberal partisan groups like the Association of Community Organizations …
Just like any organized crime group, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) has a long and established history of using fraud, deceit and intimidation to achieve its goals. ACORN uses intimidation to shake down corporations for operating funds, deceives its own employees into supporting causes they don’t believe in, and cheats the entire country by submitting fraudulent voter registrations. ACORN is also adept at co-opting government power to fund and legitimize a criminal enterprise. It has been winning federal money since the Carter administration and routinely receives …
