Reply #111: The attempt to get ACORN goes back a long [View All]

time because they were a constant champion of the poor. During the Clinton administration remember when the Republicans drew up a bill to overturn the Glass-Steagall Act? The Gramm/Leach/Bliley Act? Clinton and the Democrats ended up signing the bill. Targeted also by Gramm was the CRA or The Community Reinvestment Act.

The Community Reinvestment Act of 1977 was the result of decades of disinvestment in poor and working-class neighborhoods. It was designed to put an end to "redlining"—a widespread practice in which banks refused to write mortgages for houses in certain neighborhoods, no matter who was applying or how creditworthy they were.

ACORN worked with low income families to secure loans to buy homes and for a long time while banks were initially worried about lending to these families, they turned out to be very successful loans. But after Clinton allowed the Republicans to weaken the CRA, ACORN began warning about predatory lenders (regulations were no longer in place to prevent this).

Rightwingers fantasize that it was the CRA and ACORN who brought down the Global Economy, but in fact it was ACORN who sounded a warning long before the collapse. Iow, ACORN was a thorn in the side of the derugaltors and profiteers. And a thorn, not just on this issue, but on many more. The right has no time for organizations like ACORN.

I hope people will learn more about this organization and ignore anything written about them by the right. Wikipedia has a fairly decent review of all the work they've done over the past several decades. They are a target of the right and have been for a very long time, because they fought them on issues that related to the poor.