The tax thieves have finally been caught

The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN, has been a part of our social and political system for more than 30 years. Over the past 10 years, however, many of you have come to know ACORN not as a community organization, but as a political arm of the Working Families Party.
Now ACORN is under state and federal investigation for improprieties brought to our attention by two 20-something sleuths. James O’Keefe, a 25-year-old conservative version of Michael Moore, teamed up with Hannah Giles, a 20-year-old fellow conservative and minister’s daughter he met via Facebook, and devised a sting operation at a Baltimore-based ACORN housing office. Together, the two, dressed as a pimp and a hooker, entered the office and tried to get a mortgage for their brothel.
Not only did the employees help O’Keefe apply for a mortgage, they helped the undercover pimp design strategies to evade taxes on his illegal business. What the employees failed to realize is that these conversations were captured on a hidden camera. The tapes are now being used as evidence to stop ACORN’s government funding.
Close to 40 percent of ACORN’s funding comes from government grants. The remainder comprises a mix of union donations and charitable contributions. For the past decade, ACORN affiliates in 10 states have received more than $30 million in funding from various federal agencies. In one case, the Department of Housing and Urban Development gave the ACORN Housing Corp., the affiliate tasked with giving counseling and low-interest loans to low-income home buyers, $8.2 million.
As we now know, ACORN Housing Corp. gave much more than loan counseling. They weren’t helping anyone; instead, they were teaching interested parties how to subvert government and beat the system. What we have here is not a counseling service for low-income families trying to buy homes, but pervasive criminality.