The past few weeks have been filled with talk of the now infamous Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now. Many people once saw ACORN as a simple organization that tried to help low-income families, but ACORN’s corrupt platform has been exposed by two conservative activists.
The team, dressed as a pimp and a prostitute, taped footage from a hidden camera that showed Baltimore ACORN employees advising them on how to evade taxes because of their illegal professions, and further how to disguise their underage Salvadorian sex workers as tax exemptions.
I figured to myself this was just some little organization to which nobody really paid any attention, but after doing some research through the Washington Examiner, I found out ACORN has received nearly $53 million in federal funds since 1994 and is eligible to receive approximately $8.5 billion more within the next two years through the economic stimulus bill and federal budget.
They even obtained tax benefits for being such a loving, non-profit/non-helpful organization.
Do I want my federal taxes being spent on programs that benefit and promote underage sex traffickers? Hell no, I don’t. Luckily, the House of Representatives and the Senate voted against continuing to federally fund ACORN, but the battle isn’t over until the president signs the bill into law. Other agencies and companies like the Internal Revenue Service and Bank of America have also taken measures against ACORN to help the bill become law.
It angers me to know that 11 percent of the federal taxes we pay go to these safety net programs that do nothing for me. I propose the government reform the way we pay taxes so that we can choose where our taxes go. That way, even if everybody doesn’t get what they want, at least the majority will, and that’s the basis for democracy in the first place.
I know this would take a lot of work and preparation, but it would be worth it. Many taxes should be required, like ones that benefit national security, social security, national debt and other aspects of life that benefit all people at once.
The amount of taxes that support factors I deem to be important right now, like medical research and education, only accounts for about 20 percent of the budget — that’s not enough.
With tax reforms, the House and the Senate could spend less time worrying about worthless organizations like ACORN and more time working on the programs that are important to the majority of the country.
Now ACORN and two of its former employees are trying to sue the filmmakers for causing them unnecessary and extreme emotional distress. Maybe they can use the prostitute and underage sex slaves they helped as character witnesses.
