ACORN is on the Run

Child prostitution, voter fraud, tax evasion, and financial support for prostitutes and pimps are among the many headlines that have plagued the controversial Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN). The timing of these stories could not be worse for the controversial organization. We are a little more than a year away from the next election cycle and there are many members of Congress in both Houses, including the Senate Majority Leader (Harry Reid) who are fighting for their political lives. In spite of President Obama's love and admiration for ACORN (he, in fact, actually worked for it and with it for many years), the Congress wants to distance itself from an organization that has received millions of taxpayer dollars because it continuously finds itself in the news for all the wrong reasons.

The US Senate has taken the action to deny ACORN's funding. This was surprising to many. I was not very shocked, because this was exactly in line with the survival instincts of those who serve in Congress. This is not moral indignation on the part of most of these members, but raw fear that their days in power are numbered.

I was surprised, however, by the number of people who voted for this reform. The Associated Press stated that "The 83-7 vote would deny housing and community grant funding to ACORN, which stands for the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now." The numbers of those who stayed in ACORN's camp was few indeed. Politico.com notes that "Only a handful of Democrats sided with Acorn on the vote: Illinois Sen. Roland Burris, Pennsylvania Sen. Bob Casey, Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin, New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, Vermont Sen. Patrick Leahy, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, and Rhode Island Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse."


The Associated Press notes that ACORN's crash has been fairly fast and furious:

• Sen. Mike Johanns (R-Neb), noted that ACORN received $53 million in taxpayer funds since 1994 and that the group was eligible for increased funding in the pending legislation, which funds housing and transportation programs (part of the hundreds of millions mentioned before). The organization's behavior has led to it being in its current situation of being cut off from funding.


• To make matters worse, the Census Bureau severed its ties with ACORN, saying it does not want the group's assistance on efforts on the decennial count. This was one of the more important functions for the organization.


• In recent months, Republicans have become increasingly critical of the group, which "advocates for poor people," because conducted a massive voter registration effort last year and became a target of conservatives when some employees were accused of creating false registrations with names like "Mickey Mouse." In the past week prosecutors in Miami, Fla., arrested 11 people for falsifying hundreds of voter applications during a voter registration drive last year. The organization face similar legal problems in half of the states nationwide.

In the end I must conclude that the huge number of votes against ACORN does not make the Congress a "Hall of Courage" but a nest of cowards who have seen the writing on the wall. The American people are angry and those who find themselves supporting this kind of organization will be held accountable.

Kevin Price is Host of the Price of Business, the longest running show on AM 650 (M-F at 11 am) in Houston, Texas and on AOL Radio. His articles often appear in Chicago Sun Times, Reuters, USA Today, and other national media. Steve Moore of the Wall Street Journal calls Price the “best business talk show host in the country.” Find out why and visit his blog at www.BizPlusBlog.com and his show site at www.PriceofBusiness.com. You can also find Price on Strategy Room at FoxNews.com.

Is the Federal Government about to Create a Consumer Bank?

Back in September, when Wall Street suffered a horrible meltdown, we were told that $800 billion being pumped into financial institutions through taxpayer dollars would get the "economy moving again." Four months later and we could not be more amazed by the delays in the process. Essentially, the major banks have enjoyed a massive gift that make them more secure, but they have done nothing for the average consumer.

As a result many Members of Congress in both the House and Senate are up in arms and are about to declare that they will not take it any longer. The way I believe they may respond, is by taking the $300 billion plus left from the first bailout and additional dollars from the $1 trillion in being proposed by President-Elect Obama, to create a government based, consumer lending bank.

I don't believe they will make these banks "within" banks or even attempt to run the programs through credit unions, but will make them separate, government run, institutions. They no longer trust the banks to be altruistic, which I think was foolish to believe they would be in the first place. Banks are largely successful because they are self interested and run on the profit motive. Banks are only behaving like banks.

That leads us back to the new, government driven, banks that I believe are right around the corner. These new institutions will run with the efficiency of most government bureaucracies, which means they will continuously be running deficits, will be unresponsive to consumer needs, and will possibly undermine the competitiveness of private banks because it is very hard to compete against free or cheap money.

Since Wall Street is so dependent on private banking, the possible rise of these lending institutions will only further drive stock market fears. These banks will create ever more unpredictable investment environments and further drag the economy into despair. Although it is true that many bankers have made horrible decisions (mainly driven by political pressure from organizations like ACORN), such poor decision making would become standard with government run banks. Instead of making investments based on possible returns, they will be based on altruism and political pandering. If you ever wondered what the expression that the "road to hell is paved with good intentions" means, wait until you see these new banks.

Government leaders continue to seek short cuts and political solutions to our economic situation. Members of the US House of Representatives will all be fighting for their political lives in just two years and the President is not that far behind with his four year term. With these type of election cycles, the pressure is on to improve thing immediately, even if the consequences are potentially harmful in the long run.

A good doctor would allow some of these economic woes to run their course and not keep applying quick fixes to long term problems. Our financial institutions, like the economy in general, need a time to heal and not so called "reforms" that promise to have devastating long term consequences.

Kevin Price is a syndicated columnist whose articles frequently appear at ChicagoSunTimes.com, Reuters.com, USAToday.com, and other national media. Kevin Price is Host of the Price of Business (M-F at 11 AM on CNN 650) and Publisher of the Houston Business Review. Hear the show live and online at PriceofBusiness.com. Visit the archive of past shows here.

When It Comes to Voting, It is Quality and not Quantity

We hold the right to vote in such high regard that we now allow anyone, even Mickey Mouse, to vote in our elections. The attraction of voting is so powerful that untold numbers of dead people suspend their resting in peace to show up and make their choice for President. Yes, elections are very important.

I don't know about you, but the above references to scandals related to ACORN actually shows that voting is becoming a sham. It is not revered, but a vehicle to purely promote political agendas and not preserve our freedoms. Yet virtually everyone extols the beauty of the vote and the more voters the merrier. I think it is time to defend the quality of the vote.

Every state has limits on the campaigning that can be done during elections. For example, there is a distance that has to be maintained between where people vote and signs promoting specific candidates. You have seen this when you pulled up at your neighborhood elementary school with signs being displayed for virtually every candidate all the way up to the magical line where no more campaigning is allowed. After that, voters are protected from further external political influence. Or are they?

The reality is, the single most important political information is in the room where they vote. Not, it isn't on the wall or in fliers handed out on the instructions used for the machines. The most important political information is on the ballot itself. Every office has the party affiliation clearly labeled on each candidate. Furthermore, you can typically press one button and vote straight party ticket.

Removing party affiliation would be a very significant step that the government could take to reduce voter fraud and abuse. With the elimination of straight ticket voting, there is no longer "press seven and go to heaven" or "press nine and all is fine." People would actually have to know who they are voting for before casting a vote. What a novel idea!

This idea will have any of its proponents seen as elitists and anti-democratic by the media, I am sure. The truth is, there is nothing about it that should make voters feel disenfranchised. Are there those who are saying that voters are casting ballots, but they do not know for whom? Are those the ones that will be punished by a system that requires a little knowledge and accountability before they actually cast a vote? In my view, if they don't know a candidate by anything but party affiliation, they are not qualified to vote.

A few candidates for major offices will not be affected by this simple reform, but the quality of voting in general would be much higher in a system such as this and would lead to a decided increase in the quality of voting. That is exactly what our country needs.

Kevin Price articles frequently appear at ChicagoSunTimes.com, Reuters.com, USAToday.com, and other national media.

Kevin Price is Host of the Price of Business (M-F at 11 AM on CNN 650) and Publisher of the Houston Business Review. Hear the show live and online at PriceofBusiness.com. Visit the archive of past shows here.

Obama: Incrimination by Association?

With around 30 days left in the 2008 Presidential race, John McCain is seeing the possibility of a solid defeat unless something changes and changes quickly. For months McCain has focused entirely on the issues with very little mention of personalities and organizations that could raise red flags in the minds of many. That is starting to change for arguably good reasons.

Over the years I have been invited to serve in leadership positions of organizations and one of the first questions I asked is "who else is on it?" From there I would do background checks of my own. The Washington Post notes that "both Obama and (Bill) Ayers were members of the board of an anti-poverty group, the Woods Fund of Chicago, between 1999 and 2002. In addition, Ayers contributed $200 to Obama's re-election fund to the Illinois State Senate in April 2001, as reported here. They lived within a few blocks of each other in the trendy Hyde Park section of Chicago, and moved in the same liberal-progressive circles."

Who is Bill Ayers? The Chicago Sun Times reports that "Ayers, 63, spent 10 years as a fugitive in the 1970s when he was part of the "Weather Underground," an anti-Vietnam War group that protested U.S. policies by bombing the Pentagon, U.S. Capitol and a string of other government buildings." He has since stated (back in 2000) that he wish he had done both more bombings and had created more damage. So much for remorse.

It doesn't end with Ayers. Barack Obama proudly discusses his years as a "community organizer" and during much of that time the organizations he worked with received funding from the radical organization, ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now). ACORN is noted for questionable voter registration techniques (including the policy in Ohio where people can register and vote on the same day), but was also a major player in the sub prime debacle that is devastating the economy today.

Many of the liberal Members of Congress who are acting like heroes today for passing the massive Wall Street bailout bill had pressured lending institutions (particularly Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac) into reducing the requirements for getting loans earlier this decade. On the front lines, ACORN and one of its Chicago affiliates, The Woods Fund (on which Obama was on the Board) practiced intimidation and other techniques to make banks provide the bad loans that led to the crash of our financial institutions today.

Stanley Kurtz wrote in the New York Post that "The Woods Fund report makes it clear Obama was fully aware of the intimidation tactics used by ACORN's Madeline Talbott in her pioneering efforts to force banks to suspend their usual credit standards. Yet he supported Talbott in every conceivable way. He trained her personal staff and other aspiring ACORN leaders, he consulted with her extensively, and he arranged a major boost in foundation funding for her efforts." Meanwhile, Sen. John McCain warned fellow Members of the Senate of potential financial ruin if the sub prime loans were to continue.

Another friend that could come back to haunt Obama is the good old Rev. Wright. You will likely hear much more about him in the final days of this campaign. There is no question that the McCain is in trouble, but Obama's associations makes the Illinois Senator's own future very doubtful and he could very well be his own worst enemy by the friends he has made.

Kevin Price articles frequently appear at ChicagoSunTimes.com, Reuters.com, USAToday.com, and other national media.

Kevin Price is Host of the Price of Business (M-F at 11 AM on CNN 650) and Publisher of the Houston Business Review. Hear the show live and online at HoustonBusinessShow.com. Visit the archive of past shows here.