Breaking News
Show ACORN the Money
Thanks to federal judge Nina Gershon and the new Obama budget blueprint for FY11, the president's favorite community organizers should be back in business.
ACORN and other left-wing advocacy groups could be eligible for up to $3.99 billion in federal funding included in the $3.83 trillion fiscal 2011 budget blueprint that President Obama unveiled yesterday.
The $3.99 billion comes from a congressional slush fund known as the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program, which is part of the Department of Housing and Urban Development's (HUD) $48.5 billion fiscal 2011 budget. CDBG grants, which are awarded to states and localities, pass indirectly to ACORN.
How is more funding of ACORN possible when Congress passed a ban on funding the group and its affiliates just last year?
Congress has already hinted it might vote to restore funding to ACORN. On Dec. 8 the House Appropriations Committee rejected on a party line vote of 9 to 5 an amendment offered by Rep. Tom Latham (R-Iowa) that would have blocked federal funding of ACORN.
And in December federal Judge Nina Gershon restored federal funding of ACORN by issuing a temporary injunction against the congressional funding ban. The Brooklyn-based Gershon, a Bill Clinton appointee, determined that depriving ACORN of taxpayer dollars was an unconstitutional "bill of attainder" that singled out ACORN for punishment without trial.
You might be familiar with Gershon's oeuvre. In 1999 she ruled then-New York mayor Rudy Giuliani had no right to cut off city funding of the Brooklyn Museum of Art when it displayed dead animals and a painting of the Virgin Mary decorated with elephant dung.
Gershon's order covered the federal government's temporary spending legislation that expired Dec. 18 but ACORN is asking that the injunction be modified to cover the remainder of fiscal 2010, which ends Sept. 30. If the litigation drags on, ACORN will undoubtedly seek another modification to cover fiscal 2011.
In the same court order Gershon also blocked the Obama administration from cutting off funding for ACORN, as Office of Management and Budget director Peter R. Orszag had ordered in a directive dated Oct. 7.
The judge's ruling could be made permanent when the case goes to trial, a move that would help to shore up ACORN's finances.
But an official with the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York told me yesterday it was unclear when ACORN v. U.S.A. would proceed to trial. At this point ACORN and the government are still filing motions and other documents with the court, he said.
Although ACORN is President Obama's favorite activist group, his administration has done the right thing by appealing Gershon's ruling. Then again, it was the Obama administration in the first place that started looking for ways to keep tax dollars flowing to ACORN. In a legal memo unveiled by the Justice Department in November, the Obama administration invented a loophole that allowed the government to continue funding ACORN.
If ACORN receives fresh CDBG funding, it won't get anything close to the full $3.99 billion available because it has to compete with other community-based groups. However, most Americans would be shocked to learn that the congenitally corrupt radical group may continue to receive federal tax dollars.
The Manhattan Institute's Steven Malanga calls CDBG "America's worst urban program," noting that the money "it has lavished on poor neighborhoods has had little impact, because nothing in the funding formula requires grantees to show that they're actually improving things. Few ever 'graduate' from the program, having achieved their mission. Instead, the funding spigot stays open, year after year."
CDBG is indeed good old-fashioned graft, an area in which ACORN has great expertise. Politicians of both parties love CDBG because it is flexible. The program gives them wide latitude when spending grant money and allows local leaders to use federal dollars on local projects that they wouldn't dream of spending their own local tax dollars on. ACORN, which has been receiving funding under the Great Society-era program since at least 1996, loves CDBG because it is adept at lobbying state and local governments to give it CDBG funds.
Nonetheless CDBG-funded projects do have to meet at least one of three "national objectives," according to HUD.
About the Author
Matthew Vadum is an award-winning investigative journalist at a conservative watchdog group in Washington, D.C. Vadum is also author of Subversion Inc: How Obama's ACORN Red Shirts are Still Terrorizing and Ripping Off American Taxpayers.
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Lawrence Boccardi| 2.2.10 @ 7:15AM
Well, I'll raise objection with my "blue-dog democrat", but since they are really yellow-dogs, unsure of the outcome!
martin j smith| 2.2.10 @ 7:40AM
You know I have said this this before, if Obama can crttiicize a supreme court justice at the SOTUS who was an invited guest the this is just another example of why all judges should be suject to scrutiny and criticism for their decisions.
And, where is John MacC ? ( he is from Arizona last I heard )
Melvin| 2.2.10 @ 7:50AM
Do we expect anything less, especially when we have, "Forest Gump" running the Department of Justice.
Louis Jenkins| 2.2.10 @ 8:26AM
The only way to kill ACORN is to drive a stake through its heart. Something Blue Dog Democrats, Republican Posers, the Bench, and District of Crimminal elites are just incapable of doing. An open spigot? More like a free flowing sewer. No accountability leads to more of the same. Oh, and it is your children's money that's being flushed. Slavery is alive and well in the USA.
sydney mcclain| 2.3.10 @ 9:28AM
Louis Jenkins comments are "right on". What the current politicians donn't realize is that in the next election, EVERY last damn one of them will be voted OUT. Americans have HAD it, and we are ready to do something about it ! ! ! !
shb| 2.5.10 @ 1:13PM
Louis Jenkins is right. We have to make life miserable for the govt. agencies & politicians that allow this ACORN BOWEL MOVEMENT to exist. I am going to pester my representative & senators until they hate me. We can't depend on politicians to do our will because they act like "black mrket traders!" They are trying to get personal favors from other politicians by trading our wishes & rights!
old white guy| 2.6.10 @ 12:47PM
you folks are getting closer to having to use the second amendment to remove the aholes you elected.
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John Galt| 2.2.10 @ 10:35AM
This bizarre funding along with all the myriad of other insidious discretionary Federal Government spending will only cease when the government instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, yields to the functions outlayed for it's authority in the most precious document that we know as our Constitution!!!
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Ray| 2.2.10 @ 12:45PM
How can a national organization like ACORN be eligible for "community-based" federal funding? Because it is comprised of various "local branches?" That's absurd! That's like claiming that the Catholic Church, which also is comprised of various "local branches", is eligible. I wonder how many liberals would say that the Catholic Church should be receiving "community-based" federal funding?
allan guida| 2.5.10 @ 10:42AM
The Catholic Church is already receiving Federal funding by NOT being taxed by the IRS!
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Oldefarte| 2.2.10 @ 2:59PM
Great article, Matthew! It just demonstrates one example of the multitude of WELFARE programs that the government has been funding [at taxpayer expense] and THROWING DOWN A RAT HOLE since the 1960's Great Society was first passed by Democrats. Acorn is just a drop in the bucket of the now federal budget's deficit/debt that's now making headlines. You taxpayers are [and have been] paying for this garbage most of your working lives [as I have been]; and it's now time to cut, cut, cut this excrement out and reduce the government's deficit/debt accordingly. Wake up, America!!!!
Louis Jenkins| 2.2.10 @ 3:44PM
Indeed Mr. Oldpharte, it is throwing money down a rat hole. Pell grants are the same. Kids at the local community college register for classes, receive their grants, drop their classes, then go to the beach or buy a car. Fact. No accountability.
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David| 2.2.10 @ 5:59PM
Why should funding to ACORN be cut off when funding to the corrupt organization Xe Services LLC (a.k.a. Blackwater) continues?
JimE| 2.2.10 @ 10:01PM
David,
Moron!
David| 2.3.10 @ 12:28AM
JimE,
Why does that strike such a nerve with you?
Osamas Pajamas| 2.3.10 @ 2:07AM
Blackwater is committed to defeating scumbags like your friends in Mecca. Oh, and you.
David| 2.3.10 @ 7:19AM
Osamas Pajamas and JimE
Can you step away from the personal attacks of me and argue the merits of the statement?
Tntsgram| 2.3.10 @ 10:42AM
Your statement doesn't have any merit. It's no different then Obama blaming Bush for everything, when it was the democrat dominated House and Senate that spent spent spent. Acorn is a criminal organization and should not get taxpayer money period.
David| 2.3.10 @ 1:25PM
ACORN is an organization that has garnered a bad reputation because of the actions of some individuals that are not condoned by the organization as a whole. Those actions, however, do not nearly reach the level of murder, rape and bribery.
Oldefarte| 2.3.10 @ 11:30AM
David, Blackwater serves a valuable purpose/service to the public at large/taxpayers; whereas Acorn is nothing more than a bunch of free-loading, indigent constituents of Democrats that are receiving governmental benefits at taxpayer expense and provide no usable/worthy purpose/service to said taxpayers. Payments to Acorn are simple another form of governmental WELFARE, and payments to them are only intended to serve one segment of the political society [Democrats]! Does that answer your question
David| 2.3.10 @ 1:30PM
Despite your opinion, ACORN does provide a valuable purpose and service to the public. The availability of its services, contrary to your belief, are not limited to Democrats. There may have been some issues with some individuals within the organization, but as I said above, those issues nowhere reach the level of murder, rape and bribery of governmental officials.
Rope-a-Dope| 2.3.10 @ 6:03PM
Ohh-kayy... two can play that game:
• Do you have any evidence that your local ACORN office actually serves any Republicans? Who are these clients, and how many of them are there?
• While there was a manslaughter indictment against five Blackwater operators -- dismissed Dec. 31 because, as the judge ruled, prosecutors trampled all over the defendants' constitutional rights (see http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01.....water.html ) -- manslaughter is nowhere near murder in the criminal code, nor were any investigations into potential commission of the other two felonies you mention ever made public to my knowledge. So, please enlighten us, David: What evidence do you have that Blackwater employees committed the crimes of murder, rape or bribery?
Please note: "Evidence" does not include quotes of assertions made made by the likes of the "Huffing Post," Keith Olbermann, The Nation or any other non-objective source of either the left or right.
David| 2.3.10 @ 9:08PM
I don't have a local ACORN office, so I cannot produce the evidence for you.
As far as the evidence against Blackwater, I am not going to play that game, because no matter what information I present, your preemptive statement indicates that you are unwilling to accept valid sources of that information.
allan guida| 2.5.10 @ 10:47AM
David is right. In every organization (including republican, catholic, etc) there are bad guys. Should we force the catholic church to shut down because some bad priests abused young boys?
sandyinohio| 2.2.10 @ 6:00PM
Well, maybe after all that ACORN news and the several states that are investigating voter fraud, we could prevail on congress to stop the "community development block grants" period! Most of it is obviously going to salaries, and that just means a more expansive "public sector" than is good for the prosperity of the private sector!
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keyboard555| 2.2.10 @ 7:53PM
Fraud in gov.
1 acorn And assoc. organizations
2medicare- medicade
3union payouts--SEIU, UAW, TEACHERS UNION, etc.
4climate control
5pork barrel projects
6 high speed trains going nowhere
on@ on@ on, no end.
All this phony payout, is going to OBAMA'S civilian army. He says, " to fundamentally change America. Without this army of corruotion , OBAMA would be living in the slum projects in Chicago.
Obama is corrupt and a full fledge liar.
Tntsgram| 2.3.10 @ 10:45AM
Medicare does NOT equal Medicaid! Medicare recipients are seniors that pay a premium for health insurance which just happens to be Medicare. We also pay copays for doctors, prescriptions (some of mine are $85). Medicaid is welfare driven, it is free to those people, but we the people pay for it. I'm sick of people equating Medicare with Medicaid.
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Osamas Pajamas| 2.3.10 @ 2:04AM
GET RID OF ACORN and all similar programs. GET RID OF the judges, politicians, bureaucrats and "public servants" who support taxpayer funding of ACORN and all similar programs. Where's my rope?! Better yet --- Heads on a stick! Heads on a stick! Heads on a stick! Heads on a stick! Repeat after me --- Heads on a stick! Heads on a stick! Heads on a stick! ~:
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Jack Kinch(1uncle)| 2.5.10 @ 11:27AM
This site needs an administrator though not as much as DC. They really need an administrator.
Bryant| 2.5.10 @ 11:28AM
The idea that funding is a legal obligation is absurd.
Corruption at the Highest levels
Painter| 2.5.10 @ 1:51PM
I suspect that the Massachusetts upset was Acorn withholding "diddling" with the election results and refusing to aid the Demoncratic party until they get their funds restored. I was wondering when the fraud was going to start- I guess now we know.
Marc Jeric| 2.5.10 @ 2:58PM
The situation is much worse; Abu Hussein from Kenya, our Community Organizer-in-Chief, is the Supreme Leader of ACORN thugs who constitute his system of local soviets (in Russian, community organization = soviet). They have the leading role in the 2010 census for which they are getting $9 billion; also, they will get further billions in the voting this year. Well, so far they "elected" Washington State governor and Minnesota senator.
Rutherford| 2.5.10 @ 4:40PM
You clearly have zero understanding of the CDBG program-- quoting right-wing think tank reports isn't the same as researching or thinking about something yourself. Most of the money is used directly by local governments to shore up inadequate infrastructure and housing, making improvements in both urban and rural communities across the nation. Clean water in Hazard, KY? CDBG. Poo in the sewer instead of the yard in Alice, TX? CDBG. Good street lighting and sidewalks in Salt Lake City's poorest neighborhod? CDBG. Get the picture? The only accurate thing you say about CDBG is that very little will go to ACORN. Try less than one hundreth of a percent. Yeah, that's right--$1.6M to ACORN over a four-year period when $16B was awarded to cities and counties. Do your own research, Matthew.
Nicholas Folkes| 2.5.10 @ 9:47PM
Acorn is just another example of an afrocentric organization sucking the wealth out of US taxpayers. Obama is a divisive Socialist who will bankrupt the US with his so called "wealth redistribution" and pandering to lefty multicultural organizations. The Intl. Fabian Socialists are out to destroy 'free enterprise' and undermine Western culture and institutions. We are suffering the same pathetic actions by our Socialist Govt. in Australia and we have had a massive increase in Govt. debt in a shot period of time. All Western nations need to shut down the multicultural industry, self interest groups and affirmative action, these policies and ideals are bankrupting us and producing divided societies along ethnic, tribal and economic lines.
Amanda| 2.8.10 @ 2:30AM
Obama and cohorts are nothing more than gangsters, plain and simple. Just like the gangsters that were in charge in the Soviet Union; just like the gangsters in charge of China; and just like the gangsters in every banana republic, including the left's friends in Venuzuela and Cuba.
I hate to say it but the people of the US deserve a good beating for bringing this evil upon us by electing this radical cancer. When terrorists attacks start happening enmass in this country, I for one won't shed a tear because the stupid, easily duped American people brought this on themselves. Hopefully, when that does occur, the stupid American people will wake up and hang these people without fanfare off street lights - and that includes all Obongo's radical friends, most of the judicial system, all the leftist college professors, and 90% of the media. And that should only be the start of it.
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Carol Stewart| 10.10.10 @ 3:07PM
It's amazing that in this age of technology people can continue to be greedy and still think that they can get away with it.
explosion proof light| 11.15.10 @ 9:15AM
Actually, Abraham Lincoln was just as radical but in a different way. Ditto FDR.
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