Republicans Working To Sever ACORN From All Federal Money
And good on them for it, though I’d suggest that we expand efforts far beyond just ACORN:
A senior aide to House Republican leadership tells NRO that the GOP will continue to work to block ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, from receiving federal funds. On Monday, the Senate passed a provision, 83 to 7, to end ties between ACORN and the Department of Housing and Urban Development. The Senate vote followed in the footsteps of an announcement by the Census Bureau last Friday that they too would end their relationship with ACORN.
Still, the aide says, House Republicans are not content with just curbing ACORN’s relationships with HUD and the Census Bureau. Monday’s Senate vote, he points out, was an amendment to a housing and transportation spending bill that passed the House in July. When it passed the House in the summer, it did not deny ACORN access to federal dollars. Now, with the amended Senate bill being tossed back to the House (and probably headed for a conference committee), House Republicans see an opportunity to broaden their efforts to cut ACORN off from government money.
“There are multiple moving parts now,” the aide says. “There is new pressure on federal agencies other than the Census Bureau, such as the IRS, to severe their relationships with ACORN.”
ACORN shouldn’t be getting federal money, but really no private group should be getting federal money in arrangements like this. These sort of public/private arrangements are wrought with the sort of cronyism and corruption we’re seeing with ACORN and should be stopped.
If the government is going to do something it should do it. Create a budget. Form a bureaucracy and do it. Not partner with some private organization that has the right political connections.
That, again, is a recipe for cronyism and corruption.
