myerstownherald.com

Sen. Robert Casey’s vote to continue to fund ACORN was in the distinct minority in the Senate and was indeed the wrong course of action. ACORN, which is a community activist group, was caught in a sting operation in which its employees were taped giving advice on how to set up an underage prostitution business. After these tapes were made public, ACORN should not have received one dime more of federal funding, but Casey believed that it should.
ACORN is an umbrella group of community organizations. Its most publicized activities are registering people to vote and providing assistance for people who need low income housing. To promote its goals, ACORN has received federal funding.
Little public attention was focused on ACORN until the most recent presidential election. President Obama was close to ACORN and reportedly once served as its lawyer. ACORN was involved in the last presidential election in getting out the vote. After the election, conservatives began to scrutinize the group more closely, although how closely Obama is tied to ACORN remains a matter of debate.
Two enterprising, independent journalists recently decided to investigate ACORN after one of them was jogging by an ACORN housing office and decided to find out what happened behind the scenes. She and a friend posed as a prostitute and a pimp, went into several ACORN offices with a hidden camera, and proposed to ACORN officials that they help them set up an underage prostitution business. The ACORN officials agreed to help them and even offered suggestions about how the business could be logistically organized and could be structured to avoid tax consequences.
The tapes were aired on the Fox News Channel, and an outcry against ACORN ensued. The ACORN CEO said the employees shown on tape were fired, and that they do not represent the group as a whole. ACORN, she said, does much good work in helping poor people and should not be judged on the actions of a few bad employees.
Notwithstanding the explanation of its CEO, ACORN receives federal money and must be held accountable for its actions. The group might have received even more money under the economic stimulus plan. Such money should not be poured into a group about which serious questions have been raised.
The Senate responded quickly, with even many liberal members voting to end funding. Casey, however, voted to continue it. Casey told the Allentown Morning Call that he opposed the measure because it was a political move, although he did say the statements made by ACORN officials were “indefensible and inexcusable.”
“We’ve got bigger priorities than this,” Casey said, according to the Morning Call.
Casey sought to justify his vote by comparing ACORN to banking institutions, according to the Morning Call.
“But I would hope those putting forward these kinds of votes will apply the same standard to financial institutions,” Casey said, according to the Morning Call. “What does Congress do with a financial institution where a number of people within that institution violate the law? Are they banned from any kind of federal money?”
Casey’s vote and his rationale for that vote are simply unacceptable. ACORN must be held accountable for its use of taxpayer dollars, but Casey has failed to take that organization to task. Instead, he has followed the destructive path of vilifying financial institutions, at a time when these institutions are vital to the nation’s economic recovery.
Now that Casey has backed ACORN, voters must remember his action and hold him accountable in his next election. This course of action is the only correct one that voters can take.
The taxpayers deserve better.