ACORN, MoveOn.org Could Receive Billions of Dollars

[lockman]

http://gunowners.org/a020209.htm

 

ACORN, MoveOn.org Could Receive Billions of Dollars

 

“Economic Stimulus” Designed to Aid Anti-gun Radicals

 

 

 

 

Monday, February 2, 2009

 

 

The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), the far left anti-gun group under investigation for voter fraud, could be eligible to receive millions, if not billions of dollars from the economic bailout bill that passed out of the House of Representatives yesterday.

 

 

ACORN was an aggressive supporter of Barack Obama -- who had served as the group’s legal counsel and even trained ACORN in “community organizing” -- in the presidential election. The Obama campaign even paid the group $800,000 for “voter turnout,” the very activities that came under scrutiny by the FBI.

 

 

In October 2008, ACORN’s Las Vegas office was raided by law enforcement agents investigating voter registration fraud. According to the Nevada Secretary of State’s office, voter information submitted by the group included nonexistent names, false addresses, duplicate filings and even the starting lineup of the Dallas Cowboys.

 

 

In addition to turning in massive amounts of fraudulent voter registration forms leading up to the 2008 elections, ACORN is also involved in anti-Second Amendment activism. For instance, a New Jersey ACORN chapter supported a one-gun-a-month ordinance in Jersey City, a law that was struck down last year by an appeals court for violating the State’s preemption law.

 

 

This group should not be eligible to receive one penny of your tax money, yet ACORN has received over $28 million in taxpayer dollars in 2008 alone and over $53 million since 1994. Last year, some members of Congress were able to strip ACORN money from the home mortgage industry bailout bill, but it was reinserted into the current legislation.

 

 

The total amount of money for which groups like ACORN would be eligible in the bill is $4.2 billion, under a provision for “neighborhood stabilization activities.” According to the bill, the money can be utilized by state and local governments and also “nonprofit entities or consortia of nonprofit entities.”

 

 

ACORN can possibly collect more money under this legislation that it has over the past 15 years, and you can bet that ACORN is expert at accessing those funds.

 

 

Another group that could benefit from the bailout bill is MoveOn.org, an organization that has advocated for sweeping gun control laws.

 

 

According to Rep. Darrell Issa, a California Republican, “MoveOn.org’s civic action committee could receive stimulus funds such as money earmarked for energy ‘activities’, since MoveOn.org lists one of its goals to ‘reduce America's dependence on oil.’”

 

 

Pro-gun Senator David Vitter (R-LA) sees the bill as “payoff” for the liberal interest groups that helped to put Barack Obama in the White House, and that some provisions in the bill were actually written with specific interest groups in view.

 

 

Sen. Vitter told FOX News that the bill “is a payoff for that political activity in last year’s election, particularly with the fraudulent voter registration drives,” Sen. Vitter said.

 

 

The bottom line is that the only thing this bill will “stimulate” is attacks against your gun rights by leftist anti-gun groups. Supporters of the Second Amendment must take action now to see that such funding provisions are stripped from the misnamed stimulus package.

 

 

The bailout measure passed out of the House of Representatives by a vote of 244-188 and now heads to the Senate, where Senators have been working on their own version of the bill.

 

 

Senator [insert] plans to offer an amendment to strip provisions that would fund anti-gun groups like ACORN. Without such an amendment, GOA urges the Senate to reject the bill in its entirety.

 

 

ACTION: Please use the Gun Owners Legislative Action Center to send your Senators the

pre-written e-mail message below.

 

----- Prewritten Letter -----

 

Dear Senator:

<!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]-->

<!--[endif]-->

 

It’s pretty outrageous that the so-called stimulus bill is slated to give $4.2 billion to an organization that was raided by law enforcement agents investigating voter registration fraud. Not only that, this organization -- according to the Nevada Secretary of State’s office -- submitted voter information which included nonexistent names, false addresses, duplicate filings and even the starting lineup of the Dallas Cowboys.

 

 

The group is of course ACORN, which stands to reap this windfall in the spending bill under a provision for “neighborhood stabilization activities.”

 

 

In addition to turning in massive amounts of fraudulent voter registration forms leading up to the 2008 elections, ACORN is also involved in anti-Bill of Rights activism. For instance, a New Jersey ACORN chapter supported a one-gun-a-month ordinance in Jersey City, a law that was struck down last year by an appeals court for violating the State’s preemption law.

 

 

This group (and other groups such as MoveOn.org) should not be eligible to receive one penny of my tax money, yet ACORN has received over $28 million in taxpayer dollars in 2008 alone and over $53 million since 1994.

 

 

I urge you to remove this money from the bill. Otherwise, please vote against it in its entirety.

 

 

Sincerely,

[GWBH]

Yep - got the same email from GOA - sent Durbin an email. Burris has no email contact as of this date (convenient - huh?)

I doubt Durbin will respond.

Also sent him this...

 

1. Medicaid Bailout: The House bill includes an $87 billion bailout for state Medicaid spending. Supposedly, this federal spigot will expire in two years. But there is simply no reason to believe states will be prepared to meet their Medicaid obligations any more in 2011 than they are today. Medicaid is funded by a formula that matches state spending levels with federal dollars. If we keep bailing states out, they will have every incentive to continue irresponsible spending. For example, Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D-IL) significantly expanded health care spending in Illinois while Gov. Mitch Daniels (R-IN) prudently made “hard choices” to maintain adequate reserves. When the bailout comes, Indiana taxpayers are going to have to pay for the Illinois governor’s stupidity.

2. Medicaid Expansion: The House bill expands Medicaid eligibility to cover unemployed workers whose income does not exceed 200% of the Federal Poverty Line. This provision is supposed to expire in two years, but does anyone really expect political will at the state or federal levels to kick new populations off the Medicaid rolls once states put them on? No. States will push for indefinite expansion of the program and neither the White House nor this congressional leadership is ideologically predisposed to say no. This is nothing more that a permanent expansion.

3. Family Planning Loophole: Section 5004 of the Medicaid expansion includes language that smuggles the left’s social agenda into law under the guise of stimulus. This section undercuts parental authority, increases control over taxpayer dollars by family planning clinics, and expands exactly who is eligible to receive the benefits. Contrary to current law, the income of parents or even a spouse would not be counted in determining eligibility. So a child in a family at any income level could be eligible for free family planning services. And thanks to a “presumptive eligibility period” in the legislation, no parent ever needs to be notified that his or her child applied for Medicaid. Finally, applicants would not have to prove citizenship before “presumptive eligibility” is determined. Is this fiscal responsibility???

4. Education Bailout: The House bill creates a $79 billion State Fiscal Stabilization Fund to help states pay for public services, 61% of which must be spent on education. Not only does this money encourage states not to make tough budgeting decisions, it also comes with new federal restrictions designed to please leftist constituencies. For example, the bill forbids bailout funds to increase school choice by specifying that “no recipient of funds under this title shall use funds to provide financial assistance to students to attend private elementary or secondary schools.” I’d call that pretty one sided!

5. Education Shopping Spree: Besides that $79 billion, the House bill includes more spending for a slew of other programs, bringing the total price tag for education “stimulus” to $142 billion. Winners of this round include $1 billion for Technology Education, $1.5 billion for Pell Grants, $6 billion for higher education institutions, $2.1 billion for Head Start, $2.5 billion for the National Science Foundation, and $2 billion in Child Care Development Block Grants. Are any of these increases intended to be temporary? Can you imagine Democrats in Congress standing up to cut Head Start and Pell Grant funding in two years? Let’s be honest. That is simply not going to happen.. This $142 billion increase in education spending would nearly double total outlays in 2007 for the Department of Education and anyone that keeps tabs on government spending knows the amount of waste attributed to this kind of legislation.

6. New Jobs? President Obama has said the stimulus could create as many as 3 million jobs, but Speaker Pelosi said yesterday that 4 million jobs will be created or saved. Yet, when pressed by Rep. Dave Camp (R-MI) earlier this week, Tax Committee staffer Thomas Barthold could only shrug and admit to having no estimates that any jobs or economic growth would be created.

What is being done with taxpayer money? Does anyone have a plan or is the present administration and Congress just wing’n it?