Saturday, October 18, 2008

More on Acorn

From the WSJ piece of the 14th:
"Acorn uses various affiliated groups to agitate for "a living wage," for "affordable housing," for "tax justice," and union and environmental goals, as well as against school choice and welfare reform. It was a major contributor to the subprime meltdown by pushing lenders to make home loans on easy terms, conducting "strikes" against banks so they'd lower credit standards.

But the organization's real genius is getting American taxpayers to foot the bill. According to a 2006 report from the Employment Politicies Institute (EPI), Acorn has been on the federal take since 1977. For instance, Acorn's American Institute for Social Justice claimed $240,000 in tax money between fiscal years 2002 and 2003. Its American Environmental Justice Project received 100% of its reveue from government grants in the same years. EPI estimates the Acorn Housing Corporation alone received some $16 million in federal dollars from 1997-2007. Only recently Democrats tried and failed to stuff an "affordable housing" provision into the $700billion bank rescue package that would have let politicians give even more to Acorn."

Put together housing with the fraud involved in thier registration of voters for which some attorneys general are finally recognizing a need to act and you have a scandal which we'll have to coin a new "gate" word.

See ya

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