ACORN: A Nut That Needs To Crack

By Steve King

Until last fall, most Americans had never heard of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, more commonly known as ACORN. This relatively obscure community organizing group emerged on the national scene in 2008 after producing more than 400,000 false or fraudulent voter registrations during the 2008 election cycle.

Aside from being in the business of electing liberals, ACORN’s stated objective is to advocate for traditionally liberal policies of behalf of low and moderate income families. However, a deeper investigation into ACORN and its approximately 300 corporate affiliates reveals a complex organizational and financial spiderweb that functions both as a criminal enterprise and a self-contained economy.

ACORN has corroded the integrity of our electoral process by attacking the integrity of the ballot box. It is a crime to produce fraudulent registration forms and in many states, it is against the law to hire people and pay them commission to go out and gather voter registrations.

Yet ACORN is currently under investigation in 14 states for voter fraud and has frequently paid employees on a commission basis to register voters. ACORN was charged with voter fraud in Nevada.

According to an October 2008 article in The Economist, during the last election cycle, “in Orlando, home to the Magic Kingdom of Disney, Mickey Mouse tried to register. In Indiana there was an application from a sandwich shop called Jimmy Johns. Authorities in Nevada were surprised to receive voter registration forms from the starting line-up of the Dallas Cowboys.” All of these fraudulent voter registrations were later traced back to ACORN.

Any reasonable person would conclude that false voter registration almost inevitably lead to fraudulent voting, a felony charge. Because voter fraud is a crime nearly impossible to investigate and prosecute, there is no telling how many fraudulent votes have been cast across America because of ACORN’s illegal activities.

ACORN’s fraudulent voter registration drives may have been funded with taxpayer dollars. To date, ACORN and its business units have received more than $53 million in federal tax dollars via Nancy Pelosi, Barney Frank and ACORN’s other friends in Congress. Recent stimulus legislation could give the organization access to up $8.5 billion in additional funding. The interlocking web of financial connections between ACORN and its affiliate organizations are rife with waste, fraud and abuse, yet have never been investigated because ACORN has been protected by cronies in Congress.

The White House also has deep ties to ACORN. President Barack Obama represented ACORN as an attorney in a voter registration case, and Obama forged his political reputation while leading a get-out-the-vote effort known as Project Vote, a subsidiary of ACORN.

ACORN also played a significant role in the mortgage meltdown by pressuring banks to make bad loans, by facilitating them and by lobbying Congress to lower the standards required by Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. ACORN and many of its affiliates co-mingle funds and use the same accounting firm and same mailing address in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Individually, each of these factors is troubling, but added together, the facts surrounding ACORN warrant quick and decisive action. I believe an all-out, full court press federal investigation is the only way to bring ACORN to heel.

The Department of Justice and the Internal Revenue Service need to jointly investigate ACORN and perform a complete forensic analysis of the activities and finances of ACORN and its affiliates. Multiple congressional committee investigations need to occur to ensure this partisan criminal enterprise will not continue its shady practices while collecting taxpayer funds. People need to go to jail for their criminal activities.

Legislative action also needs to be taken to ensure ACORN will not receive any more of your taxpayer dollars. On September 17, the House, by 345-75 margin, passed an amendment blocking federal funding for ACORN. This vote sent a loud and clear message that no more taxpayer dollars should be given to ACORN, and I will be working with the Senate to try and get this ban enacted into law.

Taxpayers do not want their hard-earned money placed in the coffers of this partisan criminal enterprise. It is time for ACORN to crack and end its fraudulent operations.

Steve King Writes Letter in Support of Joe Wilson

King Statement on President’s Health Care Address

Congressman Steve King (R-IA) tonight made the following statement in response to President Obama’s health care address before a joint session of Congress.

“President Obama gave a well-delivered speech that will likely give the American public some hope that the White House is operating in a reasonable, bipartisan manner in this debate. A closer examination of the language of his speech reveals a number of ambiguities and essentially the same policies a majority of Americans reject. We do not need mandates, triggers or cuts to the benefits received by seniors. We need real solutions like lawsuit abuse reform, the ability to purchase health insurance across state lines and full deductibility that provide consumers with lower costs and more choices.”

King Statement on Confirmation of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to Supreme Court

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Congressman Steve King (R-IA) today made the following statement regarding Senate confirmation of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the United States Supreme Court.

“It is too bad Judge Sotomayor’s confirmation hearings and the public dialog about her nomination centered on race and gender rather than jurisprudence. To those who see her confirmation as a triumph of race and gender, I say first ‘congratulations’ if you are now inspired to self-motivation and if you dedicate yourselves to individual achievement based on merit rather than race, ethnicity or gender.

“If you achieve excellence in anything you decide to do, you will create opportunities for yourselves and inspiration for others. The excellence of Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in baseball in 1947 and made him MVP only two years later. No barriers exist today that compare with those Robinson faced. And no barriers exist today that cannot be overcome simply by achieving excellence. God Bless America for how far we have come! Every American has the opportunity to triumph over every actual or perceived barrier.

“Sadly, it is clear that the jurisprudence of Judge Sonia Sotomayor is not the only qualification that placed her on the Supreme Court. It is also clear that her judicial activism was a requirement rather than a disqualifier. Judicial activism effectively amends the Constitution. The very last nine people on the planet who should be amending the Constitution are Supreme Court Justices. I will watch her decisions carefully, encourage her to adhere to the Constitution and encourage her to reject de facto amendments to it and the unconstitutional preferences that were one of the qualifiers that President Obama used in her selection.”

King, Latham Introduce Bill Supporting Iowa’s Rural Hospitals

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Iowa Congressmen Steve King and Tom Latham today introduced the Medicare Support for Rural Hospitals Act. The legislation will provide increased Medicare payments to “tweener” hospitals – hospitals too large to receive additional Medicare payments as Critical Access Hospitals, but too small to be financially viable under the Medicare hospital prospective payment system (PPS).

There are eight “tweener” hospitals in Iowa, including three in Iowa’s Fifth District: St. Anthony Regional Hospital (Carroll), Spencer Municipal Hospital and Lakes Regional Hospital (Spirit Lake). Other “tweener” hospitals in Iowa are located in Fort Madison, Muscatine, Grinnell, Newton and Keokuk.

“Iowa’s rural hospitals are extremely important to the communities they serve,” Congressman King said. “It is important that we take steps to ensure the viability of our rural hospitals. For years, these tweener hospitals have been put at a significant financial disadvantage by Medicare’s payment policies. This bill will begin to address this problem by providing these hospitals with much-needed support through increased Medicare payments. This will allow these important community anchors to continue the great work they do in rural Iowa.”

“Iowa hospitals continue to deal with a Medicare system that penalizes medical facilities in rural areas,” Congressman Latham said. “This system ultimately hurts the seniors and communities that depend on these hospitals, and I’m proud to work toward a more equitable disbursement of Medicare payments.”

King Receives Defender of Economic Freedom Award

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Chris Chocola, President of The Club for Growth, the nation’s leading free-market advocacy organization with over 40,000 members, announced that Congressman Steve King has earned the annual Defender of Economic Freedom award. The award honors Members of Congress who have a strong voting record on economic growth issues.

“Congressman King is a champion of the pro-growth agenda,” Chocola said. “As 1 of 54 Congressional Members to earn this award, Congressman King has demonstrated a strong commitment to economic freedom and free-market principles.”

The award is based on certain votes in 2008 that the Club for Growth tracks on its scorecard, including cutting and limiting government spending, lowering taxes, expanding free trade, regulatory reform and deregulation. The study included a comprehensive examination of each lawmaker’s record on pro-growth policies and computed an Economic Growth Score on a scale of 0 to 100. A score of 100 indicates the highest support for pro-growth policies. Those lawmakers scoring 90 or higher receive the Defender of Economic Freedom award.

“I am grateful to receive this award from the Club for Growth,” King said. “The principles this award is based upon are the foundations of our nation’s economic strength and prosperity and key to the creation of more good-paying jobs.”

King: 6,900 Iowa Small Businesses Hit With Tax Hikes Under Liberal Health Plan

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Congressman Steve King (R-IA) today made the following statement about new research from the Heritage Foundation revealing that 6,900 Iowa small business owners will pay a 5.4 percent surtax under the liberal health care plan being debated in Congress. The Heritage study also states that the liberal plan will carry a $1.3 trillion price tag and will increase the tax burden of 2.04 million Americans, about half of them small business owners.

“Liberals have put forth a health care plan that will empower Washington bureaucrats to control our health care system. To pay for their plan, liberals are proposing more job-killing tax hikes – up to an additional 5.4 percent – on the engine of economic growth in America: small businesses.

“In Iowa and across America, many small business owners are doing all they can just to get by. Hard and smart working Iowa small business owners cannot afford these tax hikes. Iowa’s small businesses employ 668,226 people per year, and a number of these jobs will be lost if these tax hikes go through. Raising the taxes of small business owners will cost jobs and could result in some small businesses shutting their doors and closing their operations.

“Instead of destroying jobs and empowering Washington bureaucrats to control our health care system, I want to create new jobs and protect the relationship between patients and doctors. The liberal plan will decrease the quality of our health care, cost American jobs and raise our taxes to pay for more Washington spending.”

The full Heritage Foundation study is available at http://www.heritage.org/research/healthcare/upload/Surtax_table.pdf.

King: Taxpayers Forced To Fund Abortion

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Congressman Steve King, a member of the Pro-Life Caucus, made the following statement regarding abortion funding in the health care reform bill being pushed by liberals in Congress.

“Health care is about protecting life, not taking it. The health care bill put forward by liberals in this Congress will force pro-life Americans to pay for abortions in violation of their deeply held religious convictions. We know from past experience that unless abortion funding is expressly prohibited, it will be mandated and subsidized. Nowhere in this bill is taxpayer funding for abortion prohibited.

“This bill will also penalize Americans enrolled in health insurance plans that do not provide abortions. Bureaucrats will define ‘minimum benefit standards’ to require coverage of abortion, and any employer who offers a plan that does not cover abortion will face up to 8% in tax penalties. Individuals who choose not to purchase a plan that covers abortion will be forced to pay a 2.5% tax penalty.

“Americans should be free to have a health care plan that does not pay for abortions and should have the right to refuse to pay for abortions with their hard-earned tax dollars.”

King Statement on Sotomayor Senate Hearings

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Congressman Steve King (R-IA), a member of the House Judiciary Committee, today made the following statement on Senate hearings of Judge Sonia Sotomayor’s nomination to the United States Supreme Court.

“Supreme Court decisions have effectively amended our Constitution regularly and with impunity for decades. Nearly all of the social conflict in this country stems from the Court’s extra-constitutional interference with the voice of the people. The very last people in America who should be amending the Constitution are the Supreme Court justices. The Supreme Court is charged with interpreting the Constitution, but instead its recent activism has amended it.

“The American public needs to know if Judge Sotomayor will put her liberal policy preferences above neutral application of the law. America does not need another justice who decides cases based on personal experiences and personal political opinions rather than on the clear text of the Constitution. We need to know if Judge Sotomayor will adhere to our Constitution, not diverge from it and legislate from the bench.

“Of the ten Sotomayor decisions considered by the Supreme Court, eight have been reversed or vacated and another was harshly criticized. The majority of the Supreme Court agreed with her rationale just one time. Too much is at stake to confirm a judge who is, according to the Supreme Court, wrong 90 percent of the time.”

King: America’s Judeo-Christian Heritage Not A Political Bargaining Chip

Congressman Steve King today issued the following statement after voting against H RES 135 last evening. The resolution directs the Architect of the Capitol to place a marker in Emancipation Hall in the Capitol Visitor Center acknowledging the role that slave labor played in the construction of the United States Capitol.

“In the Capitol Visitor’s Center, we agreed to change the name of the Great Hall – which honored the immigrants that came legally to America – to Emancipation Hall to honor the 645,000 slaves and their descendants who were brought to the United States more than two centuries ago.

“Last night I opposed yet another bill to erect another monument to slavery because it was used as a bargaining chip to allow for the actual depiction of ‘In God We Trust’ in the CVC. The Architect of the Capitol and liberal activists opposed every reference to America’s Christian heritage, even to the extent of scrubbing ‘In God We Trust’ from the depiction of the actual Speaker’s chair in the U.S. House of Representatives.

“This is just the latest example of a several year effort by liberals in Congress to scrub references to America’s Christian heritage from our nation’s Capitol. Liberals want to amend our country’s history to eradicate the role of Christianity in America and chisel references to God or faith from our historical buildings.

“Our Judeo-Christian heritage is an essential foundation stone of our great nation and should not be held hostage to yet another effort to place guilt on future Americans for the sins of some of their ancestors. Christian abolitionists gave their lives by the hundreds of thousands to end slavery. Great American leaders like Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. worshipped God just as our Founding Fathers did. We must never forget this important aspect of our heritage or use it as a political bargaining chip.”