Al Franken voters.
September 17th the US House voted 345-75 to cut-off all federal funding for the scandal-plagued Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN). This comes on the heels of the Senate’s vote earlier in the week to deny housing funds for ACORN, Governor Pawlenty’s order to cease all state funding for ACORN and last week’s Census Bureau announcement that it would severe its ties with ACORN.
All 75 votes in favor of continuing ACORN funding came from Democrats, including Representatives Keith Ellison and Betty McCollum from Minnesota.
Since 1995, ACORN has received more that $50 million in federal funds, excluding funding from state and local units of government. The vote to defund the organization comes in the wake of videotape evidence in which ACORN employees advise undercover citizens posing as a pimp and prostitute how to evade federal tax laws. The videotapes are the latest in a series of controversies that have revealed systemic corruption within the ACORN organization. Seventy ACORN employees in 12 states have thus far been convicted of voter fraud (click here for news stories related to ACORN corruption.)
The fact that Ellison and McCollum could vote to continue funding ACORN in the face of such overwhelming evidence of systemic corruption is inexcusable and brings shame upon the state of Minnesota.