Acorn's Seed Money

By INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY | Posted Tuesday, January 27, 2009 4:20 PM PT

Stimulus: The group that pushed banks into the risky loans that brought the economy down is now eligible for a huge chunk of stimulus cash. The stimulus plan does create jobs — for community activists.

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As in any agreement, contract or piece of legislation, the devil is in the details. So it is with the stimulus package percolating in Congress.

Analysts are beginning to figure out that only a small percentage of the money will actually trickle down into the economy in the first two years, not enough to do much stimulating.

Yet in this package is a $4 billion pot for community groups like ACORN to draw upon for what are called "neighborhood stabilization activities," which include "redevelopment of abandoned and foreclosed homes."

That is a worthy goal in a troubled economy. But money was already appropriated for that purpose in the Housing and Economic Recovery Act signed into law in 2008.

The problem for activists is the money was limited to state and local governments, where presumably there is greater transparency on how it is spent, and some measure of accountability.

Community groups like the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now felt left out.

So their Democratic patrons in Congress have included language to expand the eligible recipients of up to $4 billion in assistance to include "nonprofit entities or consortia of nonprofit entities," which translates into groups such as ACORN.

ACORN has been accused of perpetrating voter registration fraud numerous times in the last several elections; is reportedly under federal investigation; and played a key role in the irresponsible schemes that caused a financial meltdown that American taxpayers are now paying dearly for.

This is like giving fire-prevention money to arsonists.

It was ACORN, under the cover of the Community Reinvestment Act, that intimidated banks into making risky loans to people who could not afford them in the name of "fairness."

ACORN organized to intimidate financial institutions into giving what have been called "ninja" loans — no income, no job, no assets — to people who could not afford them.

The CRA empowered regulators to punish banks that failed to "meet the credit needs" of "low-income, minority and distressed neighborhoods."

It gave groups such as ACORN a license and a means to intimidate banks, claiming they were "redlining" poor and minority neighborhoods.

The CRA was designed to increase minority homeownership. Whenever a bank wanted to grow or expand, ACORN would file complaints that the bank was not sufficiently sensitive to the needs of minorities in providing home loans.

The agitators would then be unleashed to seal the deal — for a cut, of course. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac then would buy up these bad loans, creating a market for them, and the rest is history.

A major part of ACORN's sordid history is vote fraud. ACORN has been implicated in voter fraud and bogus registration schemes in Missouri, Ohio and at least 12 other states.

Last July, ACORN settled the largest case of voter fraud in Washington state history, involving nearly 2,000 bogus voter forms. In Ohio in 2004, ACORN submitted forms for the likes of Mary Poppins, Dick Tracy and someone named Jive Turkey.

In 2008, ACORN filed more than 43,000 new voter registration forms in Minnesota, where the razor-thin margin of victory for Republican Sen. Norm Coleman over former "Saturday Night Live" comedian Al Franken evaporated.

Minnesota Secretary of State Mark Ritchie, who orchestrated the recount that gave Franken a lead six weeks after Coleman appeared to win by 725 votes on Election Day, has extensive ties to ACORN.

It's becoming clear that the stimulus package in its current form is less about jump-starting the economy than it is about pursuing a political agenda.

To give access to stimulus money to a group waist deep in the mortgage crisis and vote fraud like ACORN is, well, just plain nuts.