According to a 2006 report from the Employment Policies Institute (EPI), Acorn has been subsidized by the United States taxpayer since 1977.
Consider that Acorn's American Institute for Social Justice claimed $240,000 in tax money between fiscal years 2002 and 2003. In addition, its American Environmental Justice Project received all of its revenue from government grants in those same years. In fact, EPI estimates the Acorn Housing Corporation alone received some $16 million in federal dollars from 1997-2007.
Also, we should remember that just last month, House Democrats tried and failed to stuff an "affordable housing" provision into the $700 billion bank rescue package that would have let politicians give even more taxpayer dollars to Acorn.
So, here is how Acorn puts taxpayer dollars to work as reported by various news outlets across this nation:
The Michigan Secretary of State told the press in September that Acorn had submitted "a sizeable number of duplicate and fraudulent applications."
Earlier this month, Nevada's Democratic Secretary of State Ross Miller requested a raid on Acorn's offices, following complaints of false names and fictional addresses (including the starting lineup of the Dallas Cowboys). Nevada's Clark County Registrar of Voters Larry Lomax said he saw rampant fraud in 2,000 to 3,000 applications Acorn submitted weekly.
Meanwhile, officials in Ohio are still investigating voter fraud connected with Acorn, and Florida's Seminole County is withholding Acorn registrations that also appear fraudulent.
New Mexico, North Carolina and Missouri are looking into hundreds of dubious Acorn registrations. Wisconsin is investigating Acorn employees for, according to an election official, "making people up or registering people that were still in prison."
Then there's Lake County, Indiana, which has already found more than 2,100 bogus applications among the 5,000 Acorn dumped right before the deadline. "All the signatures looked exactly the same," said Ruthann Hoagland, of the county election board.
Bridgeport, Connecticut estimates about 20% of Acorn's registrations were faulty. As of July, the city of Houston had rejected or put on hold about 40% of the 27,000 registration cards submitted by Acorn.
There is an Acorn voter registration form for Mickey Mouse in Florida and reports of teenagers bribed by Acorn with "smokes and dollar bills" to fill out fraudulent voter registration cards several dozen times.
Sadly, for Acorn, this record of voter registration fraud is nothing new. In 2004, four Acorn employees were indicted in Ohio for submitting false voter registrations. In 2005, two Colorado Acorn workers were found to have submitted false registrations. Four Acorn Missouri employees were indicted in 2006; five were found guilty in Washington state in 2007 for filling out registration forms with names from a phone book.
A politician that votes to give taxpayer dollars to organizations with a history of voter fraud needs to be held accountable by the voter for a lack of sound judgement. Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and now Acorn are just the latest examples of the lack of oversight and regulation in the handling of taxpayer money in Washington D.C. .
Taxpayer dollars are the nuts that fund Acorn. Based on the problems of voter fraud in this Presidential election and the dubious history of that organization, a positive return on taxpayer money is pretty difficult to see.
Now ACORN is allegedly involved in voter registration fraud… Yet Obama and the Obama campaign make it seem like McCain asking about his connections with ACORN and the American people knowing about ACORN isn’t a big deal. It is a big deal!!
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