Does Your Bank Fund ACORN’s Child Prostitution Consulting Service?

Only about 40 percent of ACORN Housing Corporation’s 2007 budget came directly from taxpayers. To stop AHC, corporations, charitable foundations, and even the United Way will need to develop the courage to say “no."

A 2008 NPR story exposed several sources of ACORN funding. Since June 2008, many of these donors have accepted government TARP funds while continuing to fund ACORN’s criminal enterprise.

• J. P. Morgan Chase took $25 billion from taxpayers under TARP last year. And JPMC gave $2.4 million to ACORN Housing Corporation, the entity in the eye of ACORN’s child prostitution and tax evasion storm. But J. P. Morgan Chase is solvent. Banks that failed save for unprecedented government action also gave millions to ACORN.
• TARP recipient, Bank of America, filtered $1.4 million while accepting $15 billion in government funding. Failed bank Citigroup, now the property of Uncle Sam, gave ACORN $1.5 million even though it didn’t have money to keep its doors open. So far, the taxpayer invoice for Citi is $25 billion.
• Service Employees International Union (SEIU) stands to get billions from pending healthcare legislation, and SEIU is ACORN’s second-leading donor, trailing only US taxpayers. SEIU gave more than $4 million to ACORN and its affiliates in 2006 and 2007.

And the list goes on. According National Public Radio, ACORN receives funding from George Soros, Bill and Melinda Gates, Vanguard, and countless other companies, individuals, and foundations that receive government money one way or another.

But that’s not all. A Consumer Rights League report from June 2008 describes in detail how ACORN’s activities helped bring down the housing market through a combination of extortion and advocacy. On the one hand, ACORN threatens to smear banks as racist to garner large donations. On the other, it used those extorted funds to find new, unqualified. The banks felt compelled to make bad loans because of Congressional mandates and ACORN threats. It’s no surprise to find Fannie Mae, Ameriquest Mortgage, and Washington Mutual in this list of “victim” banks.

In that 2008 report, the Consumer Rights League report predicted the sort of scandal uncovered by journalists Hannah Giles and James O’Keefe:

This sloppy staff work doesn’t just fail to meet the public’s needs—a public that is paying with its tax dollars—it also raises the possibility of fraudulent use of taxpayer money.

Color of Change founder Van Jones is out of the White House. ACORN’s Congressional supporters running for cover. It’s time for the cowards in the nation’s C-Suites to divest themselves of ACORN.  The Tea Party’s got their backs, as John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods, learned after his "friends" tried to oust him for supporting free market healthcare solutions.