Washington Times falsely claims ACORN “to get nearly $4 billion in Obama's fiscal 2011 budget”

Written by Eric Hananoki

Published

In a February 10 post on The Washington Times' Water Cooler blog, Anath Hartmann falsely claimed that ACORN, a longtime right-wing scapegoat, “is slated to receive nearly $4 billion” from the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program under Obama's fiscal 2011 budget proposal. In fact, while the Obama budget proposal provides $3.99 billion for the CDBG formula program, the proposal does not direct any of that funding to ACORN.*

Wash. Times falsehood: “ACORN slated to get nearly $4 billion in Obama's fiscal 2011 budget”

From a February 10 post on The Washington Times' Water Cooler blog by Anath Hartmann headlined, “ACORN slated to get nearly $4 billion in Obama's fiscal 2011 budget”:

To add to the list of outrageous earmarks in Obama's fiscal 2011 budget, ACORN, the embezzlement-prone, voter-registration-fraud-plagued, leftist community organizing group, is slated to receive nearly $4 billion from a taxpayer-funded slush fund.

The money will come from the Community Development Block Grant, one of the Department of Housing and Urban Development's longest-running programs. The HUD Web site cryptically defines the grant's purpose as providing “communities with resources to address a wide range of unique community development needs,” not a reassuring description given the group's recent past history of aiding the community through gratuitous missappropriation of funds.

Has Congress already forgotten the Sept. 2009 ban it passed on ACORN and ACORN-afiliate funding? Or the video that led to the ban, footage showing ACORN employees urging individuals they thought were a prostitute and her pimp to set up a brothel and advising the pair on evading taxpaying? It would have had a hard time doing so, cosidering that ACORN is currently suing the federal government for the attempted ban.

Though the largely Democratic House Appropriations Committee voted against the block last December, it is a Bill Clinton-appointee, U.S. District Court Judge Nina Gershon, who has truly aided the corrupt ACORN cause. Also in December, Gershon issued a federal injunction against the Congressional funding ban, crying that it ran afoul of the Constitution because under the ban, ACORN was “singled out by Congress for punishment that directly and immediately affects their ability to continue to obtain federal funding, in the absence of any judicial, or even administrative, process adjudicating guilt.”

Fox Nation: “ACORN Eligible to Tap $4B From Obama Budget”

On February 11, Fox Nation linked to the Washington Times post with the headline, “ACORN Eligible to Tap $4B From Obama Budget.”

Obama budget proposal does not direct funding to ACORN

Proposal does not mention ACORN. Media Matters for America searched Obama's FY 2011 budget proposal. The proposal contains no language specific to ACORN.*

Fox News revives ACORN-funding bogeyman to attack Obama budget

Fox News host Bill Hemmer and Fox Business Network reporter Tracy Byrnes raised the specter of ACORN receiving federal funding to attack President Obama's 2011 budget proposal. Conservatives in the media have exhaustively cited the possibility of federal money going to ACORN to attack health care reform legislation, the financial bailout bill, and the economic recovery act.

This item originally stated incorrectly that only municipalities are eligible for funds under the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program. Media Matters regrets the error.