More Misdirection from OMB
The reports of ACORN's death in USA Today are false. They've written that ACORN has already been defunded and have questioned whether it's necessary for Congress to continue efforts to defund ACORN. It's as if they want you to believe that ACORN has already been punished and it's time to move on.
I've been hearing this argument from lots of my friends on the Left.
"The IRS is investigating ACORN." That's not true - they've dropped them from their volunteer tax preparer program but have not launched an investigation.
"The DOJ is investigating ACORN." That's not right either – the DOJ is investigating whether they've given ACORN any grants, not investigating ACORNs criminal conduct.
"ACORN is committed to change and has launched an independent investigation." We've been down this road before. The Harshbarger investigation is narrow in scope, essentially designed to determine whether ACORN effectively provides services to its members. I watched the videos, they provide services, they're criminal services, but they do seem to provide them well. This is a poor distraction from the calls for a real investigation.
Today we saw what will inevitably become the liberals' next argument: the White House says stop paying ACORN. They'll tell us this is the final nail in the coffin, we should all move on. But is it really?
White House OMB Director Orszag told Executive Departments and Agencies to abide by the text of section 163 of the Continuing Resolution. All he did was tell them to follow the law. The Continuing Resolution temporarily prohibits future funding of ACORN and disbursements of grant money.
This action, telling government agencies to follow the law, is really an attempt to distance President Obama from the group with which he is well associated.
If you ever visited Obama's campaign website you could see it in his own words:
When Obama met with ACORN leaders in November, he reminded them of his history with ACORN and his beginnings in Illinois as a Project Vote organizer, a nonprofit focused on voter rights and education. Senator Obama said, "I come out of a grassroots organizing background. That's what I did for three and half years before I went to law school. That's the reason I moved to Chicago was to organize. So this is something that I know personally, the work you do, the importance of it. I've been fighting alongside ACORN on issues you care about my entire career. Even before I was an elected official, when I ran Project Vote voter registration drive in Illinois, ACORN was smack dab in the middle of it, and we appreciate your work."
But where's that appreciation today? Now he feigns ignorance stating that: "You know, if -- frankly, it's not really something I've followed closely. I didn't even know that ACORN was getting a whole lot of federal money."
His OMB Director issuing this memorandum doesn't change the game. The Obama Administration has not made any significant efforts to investigate ACORN. We've yet to see any meaningful investigation by Treasury, DOJ, the IRS, or HUD.
The White House didn't really say stop payments to ACORN. They haven't called for any meaningful investigation of ACORN either. All they've done is decide to follow the law, and in doing so they've given the President some cover.