ACORN Wrecked Housing and 401(k)s

[Guest Lee Bellinger]

By now you've probably heard that the Marxist community organizing group ACORN – which has received $53 million in federal housing funds since 1997 – was caught red-handed for promoting pimps, prostitution, and mortgage and tax fraud.

 

Recently two intrepid conservative activists, posed as a prostitute and pimp, sought help from ACORN activists in qualifying for a loan to buy a house (while carrying a hidden camera).

 

Helping People Commit Fraud and Other Crimes

Is Second Nature For ACORN Employees

 

At multiple locations, ACORN representatives actively (in fact, eagerly) advised them how to make the prostitution money look like bona fide income, conceal 13-year-old illegal aliens trafficked into the U.S. to staff a whore house, and create a paper trail of income for purposes of qualifying for a mortgage. The video recordings showed ACORN staff acting like old pros in helping people game the system.

 

These crimes are but misdemeanors compared to the role ACORN played in the collapse of the U.S. banking system and millions of Americans' investment portfolios in 2008.

 

Let me explain:

 

1. ACORN has received at least $53 million in federal housing funds since 1995. They have served as an unofficial federally-funded advisory service in keeping with the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA). In short, ACORN was given big bucks to help the government-backed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac hand out mortgages to millions of people who could not afford them.

2. During the 1990s and later during the Bush Administration, ACORN lobbied heavily in support of the government's scheme to "make housing more affordable" – and launched pressure campaigns to force private banks to engage in unwise lending practices. More specifically, ACORN trumped up charges of racism and attacked banks that were reluctant to give loans to would-be borrowers with high-risk credit profiles. Conveniently, participation in ACORN's federally funded loan counseling program allowed these banks to become "good actors."

3. ACORN worked closely with the government-sponsored loan entities, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

4. Fannie and Freddie, as taxpayer-backed entities, were allowed to operate under an astonishingly dangerous 100-1 debt ratio – far higher than any private-sector mortgage company.

5. During the Bush years, all attempts by Republicans to stop the dangerous business practices of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were thwarted by the liberal establishment, including Congressman Barney Frank (D-MA), Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT), and ACORN.

 

Hard Left Politicians Partnered With ACORN

to Dole Out Loans to High-Risk Borrowers

6. When the Federal Reserve asked Congress to rein in the dangerous lending practices of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, ACORN launched a successful campaign to kill the legislation. Republicans who dared to speak up were accused of being racist and against the poor.

7. A Senate bill to regulate Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac sponsored by Senator Hagel was killed by Senator Dodd with the help of an aggressive ACORN pressure campaign.

 

The rest is history. The massive mal-investment and fraudulent loans perpetrated by ACORN and its fellow travelers such as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac helped precipitate the 2007-2009 collapse of the housing sector and with it the banking sector. Taxpayers have so far bailed Fannie/Freddie out to the tune of $400 billion.

 

ACORN has been front and center in pressuring banks to loan trillions of dollars to people who could not afford the loans. ACORN played a central role in the 2008 market crash by perpetrating a gigantic fraud on the taxpayers, wrecking the banking system and with it the retirement funds of millions of Americans.

 

The U.S. Senate has cut off some of ACORN's funding (by a vote of 83-7) because the group finally got caught, but I suspect these fraudsters will be back for more in the future, even if operating under another name.

 

As revolting as it may be, nailing the ACORN people for helping to set up a whore house and human trafficking center is a little like charging serial killer Charles Manson for spitting on the sidewalk.