' The Issa Report- ACORN "a criminal enterprise..."'--Click the picture:
Posted on 09/25/2009 6:14:23 AM PDT by 2nd amendment mama
ACORN is using a tangled web of tax-exempt organizations to funnel tax money to itself according to a detailed review released last night by Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), the ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee.
Some or all of them may be nothing more than shell companies used to pass money from the government directly through to ACORN and its affiliates.
“This analysis regarding the vast number of charitable organizations that ACORN set up to funnel money to itself raises questions about whether ACORN used the entities to advance the charitable mission of helping poor people get housing, or whether the entities were used as part of a shell game to funnel charitable funds to a taxable entity,” Grassley said of his report.
“Despite the fact that ACORN set up 42 tax-exempt entities and even housed 31 of them at the same address in New Orleans, ACORN told me three times in 2006 and 2007 that it did not operate as a tax-exempt entity. The public deserves an accounting of ACORN’s conglomerate of tax-exempt organizations given the public dollars involved, both through direct government support and tax-exempt status.”
Grassley also said that the potential abuse of charitable dollars is no different than Jack Abramoff’s use of charities to launder money but on a much larger scale.
From the report:
"Our research indicates that ACORN’s response that it is not tax-exempt is disingenuous and misleading. Millions of charitable dollars from individuals, foundations and federal, state, and local governments flow to ACORN and its related taxable entities from ACORN-affiliated charitable organizations. A memo prepared for ACORN executives, which was provided to us anonymously, confirms the existence of numerous charitable organizations. The memo dated June 19, 2008, details issues regarding governance and commingling of funds, among other things."
The analysis prepared by Grassley’s professional tax staff at the Senate Committee on Finance and posted with supporting documents on their websites: http://finance.senate.gov/ and http://grassley.senate.gov/.
Senate Republicans to Sebelius: Repeal the Gag Order
The entire Republican U.S. Senate leadership yesterday signed a letter informing Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius that unless and until she rescinds the unconstitutional gag order barring all Medicare insurance providers (except the AARP) from communicating with their customers about the Democrats’ healthcare “reform” legislation, they will slow or halt the confirmation process of her department nominees.
The letter also highlights the fact that HHS had previously held that there is no legal authority to justify prohibiting a health plan “from informing its members of proposed legislation and exhorting them to express their opinions” about it.
The ranking Republican senators on both committees of jurisdiction over the health care legislation also signed on.
From the letter:
As the Supreme Court has repeatedly recognized, our constitutional tradition is one of “a profound commitment to the principle that debate on public issues should be uninhibited, robust, and wide-open.” Health plans, of course, have the right to speak on matters of public concern, a fundamental principle that your department, until recently, recognized and respected. Specifically, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) had previously noted that there was no legal authority to justify prohibiting a health plan “from informing its members of proposed legislation and exhorting them to express their opinions” about it. In fact, HHS had previously determined that shutting down communication of this sort “would violate basic freedom of speech and other constitutional rights of the Medicare beneficiary as a citizen.”
Jonathan Blum, an acting director at the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) -- part of the bloated HHS bureaucracy -- was apparently responsible for issuing the order late Monday in collusion with his old boss, Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mt.), Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee. Baucus is at the center of the controversy, having earlier this week claimed responsibility in media reports for the free speech ban by CMS.
I asked Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) at a press conference yesterday about the Baucus-Blum gag order that apparently overlooked the AARP.
“The AARP is by all appearances supporting what the administration is doing,” McConnell said. “The other health insurance plans have some questions. But the core issue is this: you all here are free to write whatever you want to because of the First Amendment to the Constitution. It is outrageous for the government to shut down either individuals or companies expressing themselves about legislation before the Congress. This is a true outrage. And you have not heard the last of this. There will be more chapters, shall I say, in this story.”
And before the end of the day, another page had turned.
The best descriptive line of the day in the health care debate yesterday came from Senate Republican Conference Chairman Lamar Alexander. Medicaid is greatly expanded under the Baucus plan outline being marked up in committee, placing more unfunded mandates on state governments.
“It puts more low income Americans in the largest government-run program we already have -- one which forty percent of doctors won’t serve,” Alexander said. “That means we’ll be giving 70 million low income Americans a ticket to a bus line that only operates 60 percent of the time.”
Clinton Administration HHS Directive
Rep. Dave Camp (R-Mich.), ranking Republican on the House Ways and Means Committee, released the directive issued during the Clinton administration yesterday stating that private health care plans offering Medicare benefits have the right to inform their enrollees about pending legislation.
The Baucus-Blum actions at CMS reversed the long-standing policy by not only barring communications by Medicare Advantage plan private insurers with their customers but CMS also initiated an investigation into Humana, Inc., for informing their customers of Medicare benefit cuts proposed by President Obama and Congressional Democrats.
“The more we uncover about this gag order, the more disturbing it becomes,” Camp said. “The White House is clearly trying to keep seniors from learning the facts about their proposed Medicare cuts. Reversing precedent and abusing the federal government’s regulatory authority to restrict the constitutionally protected flow of information is wrong and unethical. We need to get to the bottom of this and we need to make sure all Americans, and especially seniors, know the facts about what the President and Congressional Democrats’ health care bill will mean for them.”
Great post. Thanks. Thank you Connie Hair. GRRRREAT article!
B U M P
REID BLOCKS ACORN PROBE!
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2347976/posts
It is about time they got this.
Ping.
I fully expect Eric Cantor and Jim Demint to come out with a very firm statement today, expressing their ‘disappointment’ in the actions of ACORN and that they are ‘darn serious’ about getting to the bottom of it. Probably even throw a couple ‘gosh darns’ in there, for emphasis. Of course, they won’t follow through on anything, that will be left to Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh and the American people, but those congressmen will be darn angry at all this.
Oh, and keep focused on that 2010 election, all us suckers. When groups like ACORN will basically handle the vote counting. Make sure we ‘get out the vote’, so they can count it.
Ping.
Without regard to corruption, ACORN is first and foremost, a radical political advocacy org with a mission to promote the DNC. It should never have recieved any public funding for this reason alone.
ACORN is nothing but government funded astroturf for the Democrats. I am surprised Democrats turned on them so quickly. Democrats must have other ACORN-like organizations in their back pocket that they plan to funnel money to. Names will change, but the corruption will continue. Our government dollars will continue to fund Democratic activist organizations.
acorn has protection
Gosh, I have been looking for a story about a Barney Frank probe....
R.I.C.O.
Are there grounds for a civil suit? Treble damages?
RICO!!! They need to be RICO’ed!!!!! Our Justice Dept. has turned into JUST US Dept!!!
Greta Van Susteren asked what our Justice Dept does with all our money since it took a sting operation by a couple of 20 somethings to bust this gang.
RICO RICO RICO
TIC TIC TIC
Nuts Nuts Nuts
mmm mmm mmm
Just a little ditty “for the children”
If any of you want history of voter fraud with ACORN, type in ‘repository’ in search and go way back to some of the original threads.....The states and articles are archived there.
Insurers must IGNORE this illegal, unconstitutional trampling of the 1st amendment. More importantly, FOX should make this story #1, every minute of every hour until the government/Hussein owned media is forced to report it as well. Bowing to the illegal, unconscionable pressure of this criminal government will NOT help these companies in the end.
There should be a Congressional investigation of ACORN, but that will never happen as some members of Congress probably have ACORN entanglements themselves. However where is the DOJ?...this warrants FBI investigation.
FReep mail me if you want on/off the list.
B U M P
I saw that last night. This last election certainly changed Greta - alot!
bump
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