Why the ACORN Funding Cuts Are a Joke

Last Thursday the House voted to cut all federal funding to ACORN, but this is merely smoke and mirrors, which is why Dems overwhelmingly voted for it. Were ACORN not already slated to receive huge amounts of federal funding through the back door they would have voted down the amendment because, let's face it, their base would never care how they voted and ACORN helps them get elected and push their agendas. Even if ACORN employees were caught on video eating black babies and waterboarding puppies at five different offices, one of which was operating illegally, the DNC's base would still rush to cover for and defend them. Tax evasion, money laundering, massive voter fraud, unethical business practices, and shady associations never bothered them, so I do not see why aiding and abetting more tax fraud would suddenly be an issue, even if it involved underage prostitutes. It certainly was not the illegal immigration angle of the Big Government exposés that bothered them, since ACORN is closely allied with La Raza. First, the question exists as to whether those funds will even be cut at all, then there's the question of whether an enormous amount of funding already set aside for ACORN will go to ACORN, regardless of what is in the bill that just passed the House and Senate. ACORN has already become one with the government as a proxy arm of the DNC and is slated to have entire sectors of government - not just indivial agencies - run by ACORN itself.

Will Obama even sign the Defund ACORN Act? He said yesterday that he was not committed cutting off federal funding of ACORN at all, which suggests that he may very well veto it. His ambivalence regarding cutting federal funds to a criminal organization is interesting given his commitment to investigating CIA officers who never broke the law, as indicated by the results of the investigation already performed. This is also indicative of Obama's ethics, since he sees fit to persecute those who uphold the rule of law and keep us safe while protecting criminals, but I digress. I also get the impression that Pelosi is doing his dirty work in defending ACORN, since that would obviously be a rather perilous road for Obama to travel down but is unlikely to upset Pelosi's San Francisco constituency. I think Obama will veto the amendment unless this story gets out and his ratings take another serious hit.

Even if federal funds are ostensibly cut from ACORN's budget, ACORN is merely one face of a hydra-headed beast. As of October 2008, 294 businesses, nonprofits, and front groups were tied to ACORN. Despite being ostensibly a private corporation (which does not divulge its finances), ACORN is already partnered with several government agencies, including he IRS, HUD, and until September 11th, the Census Bureau.

Billions in federal funds are already set aside for outfits which operate out of the same New Orleans office as ACORN. AmeriCorps is but another face of the same coin. Matthew Vadum writes in The American Spectator:

ACORN took advantage of [Americorps] a decade ago. As I wrote previously, ACORN, which is now notorious for its commingling of funds within its network of affiliates, used government resources to promote legislation.

A congressional report noted that there was "apparent cross-over funding between ACORN, a political advocacy group and ACORN Housing Corp. (AHC), a non profit, AmeriCorp [sic] grantee" that is a major affiliate of ACORN.

The government-funded AmeriCorps, which promotes public service, suspended AHC's funding "after it was learned that AHC and ACORN shared office space and equipment and failed to assure that activities and funds were wholly separate."

The report noted that, "AmeriCorps members of AHC raised funds for ACORN, performed voter registration activities, and gave partisan speeches. In one instance, an AmeriCorps member was directed by ACORN staff to assist the [Clinton] White House in preparing a press conference in support of legislation." ("Report on the Activities of the Committee on Economic and Educational Opportunities During the 104th Congress," Report 104-875, January 2, 1997).

ACORN/AmeriCorps were actually incorporated into the federal government back in 1993, when Bill Clinton signed the 1993 National and Community Service Trust Act, thereby establishing the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS), which administers AmeriCorps. The CNCS actually launched AmeriCorps to take over two existing federal programs, VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America) and the National Civilian Community Corps (NCCC). See, federally-funded service programs were not quite socialist or astroturf enough to the Clinton administration, so they created a new entity dedicated to "recruiting, training, and managing community volunteers," i.e., a community organization. This organization's "volunteers" are actually paid with our tax dollars to the tune of $11,800 apiece annually.

AmeriCorps is a front organization for the Soros network of radical leftist activism which is largely funded by the federal government. They give huge grants to leftist organizations within the network who then recruit for them. Ronald Kessler writes in CNS News that AmeriCorps workers have "been put to work to promote the causes of Democrats, such as lobbying against the ‘three-strikes’ anti-crime legislation in California or for expanding housing subsidies and rent control.”

In addition to the $525.6 million AmeriCorps was already receiving annually, Obama signed a bill into law in April to triple the size of AmeriCorps by sextupling its budget, to the tune of $5.7 billion. Jim DeMint says that AmeriCorps will be the 14th largest employer in the country. Given ACORN and AmeriCorps' intimate history together, given that AmeriCorps essentially works by funding other organizations, and given the fact that both essentially serve the same function, that of promoting leftist causes - and do so out of the very same office - one can imagine that some of that ridiculous sum of tax money might fall into some hands over at the next desk ACORN. It is nearly inconceivable that the "Enron of nonprofits" might not potentially fudge a number or two, particularly since Senate Democrats voted down an amendment which would have blocked GIVE Act funds from going to ACORN.

ACORN is also an endorser of the Apollo Alliance, which is set to receive $86 billion for green jobs and housing through the $787 billion Porkulus bill. Van Jones may be gone, but the money and the greenie-commie theoretical jobs which nobody can define remain. They have been graciously allocated a hefty sum of funding "to build new transit and high speed rail lines, weatherize homes, develop next generation batteries for clean vehicles, scale up wind and solar power, build a modern electric grid, and train a new generation of green-collar workers."

Former Green Jobs Czar Van Jones, who served on the Apollo Alliance's board of directors for years, describes the Apollo Alliance's mission as "sort of a grand unified field theory for progressive left causes." It is funded by the George Soros' Tides Foundation through his Open Society Institute. Guess who sits on the board of directors at the Tides Foundation? Wade Rathke, founder and former chief organizer of ACORN. That would be the same ACORN "which is now notorious for its commingling of funds within its network of affiliates, [and which] used government resources to promote legislation."

The Cap and Trade bill sets aside $300 million for "community organizations" over the next six years, and although nothing is mentioned specifically about ACORN, the term "community organizations" is written 19 times. You can guess who the Apollo Alliance had in mind when they wrote the bill.

ACORN is also set to implement much of Obamakare. It already administers - in concert with the IRS - "benefits enrollment" in 26 states for everything from SCHIP and Medicaid to food stamps and tuition assistance programs. All 50 states will be covered under such a program by January of 2010. Not much has been made of the role that "exchanges" such as ACORN's benefits enrollment program would play in Obamakare, but it is significant. Exchanges must contract with "navigators" like ACORN, who have the power to dictate which private and state programs sink or swim, who gets coverage and what kind, and how services are allocated. They also have to potential to grow exponentially as they deem private and state insurance programs not sufficiently cost-effective and then socialize them.

Michele Bachmann said of the government takeover of GM:

Now we've moved into the realm of gangster government. We have gangster government when the Federal Government has set up a new cartel and private businesses now have to go begging with their hand out to their local--hopefully well politically connected--Congressman or their Senator so they can buy a peace offering for that local business. Is that the kind of country we are going to have in the future?

Yes, that will be the kind of country we have in the future if we do not cut of all funding to every ACORN associate and front group. We will be a nation which operates on a system of Chicago-style patronage in which citizens have to offer bribes and make deals in order to get a pacemaker.

Saul Alinsky wrote in his guide to leftwing activism, Rules for Radicals, “From the moment an organizer enters a community, he lives, dreams, eats, breathes, sleeps only one thing, and that is to build the mass power base of what he calls the army.” Obama has been building his army from the moment he assumed the office of the President and ACORN is but one branch of that army. Obama has already managed to funnel billions of our tax dollars into ACORN, its affiliates, its endorsers, and its endorsees in a myriad of ways, as every major spending bill this year has grabbed substantial money and power for ACORN.

The sad truth is that the Democratic party has become one with an enormous crime syndicate. The Shadow Party no longer lingers in the shadows; the Shadow Party is now the DNC and our elected Democrat officials are merely its pretty faces. Obama et al have substantially grown their army by usurping and creating huge sectors of the U.S. economy for the express purpose of funding a leftist patronage system for everything from jobs to health care. The federal government must completely defund the entire leftwing network - no matter how its various fronts may re-brand or re-organize themselves - including the Corporation for National and Community Service, and an independent audit must be performed, since the IRS is also an ACORN associate.