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Archive for the ‘Darrell Issa’ Category
Whitman or Poizner, A Choice Between Those Who Say and Those Who Do
Since he began his campaign for Governor, Republican candidate Steve Poizner has tried to claim a conservative mantle, working tirelessly to convince Californians that his liberal record was nothing more than a mirage.
Having been involved in California politics for the better part of two decades, I’ve seen so many candidates go to extreme lengths to try and reinvest themselves and their record. Until now, I have never seen a man so completely try and rewrite history to the point where he may actually believe the truth he has created.
Administration Decision to Fund ACORN Reaps of Political Cronyism
An opinion was just made public today by the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) that opens the door to allow the federal government to fund the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) for all contracts signed prior to the enactment of legislation Congress authorized and the President signed prohibiting federal funding of ACORN.
The bipartisan intent of Congress was clear – no more federal dollars should flow to ACORN. It is telling that this Administration continues to look for every excuse possible to circumvent the intent of Congress. Taxpayers should not have to continue subsidizing a criminal enterprise that helped Barack Obama get elected President. The politicization of the Justice Department to payback one of the President’s political allies is shameful and amounts to nothing more than old-fashioned cronyism.
Issa OpEd on Health Care in Politico: Dem proposals = Legislative delusion
After widespread disapproval of their 1,000-page proposal for government control of health care, congressional Democrats have responded by producing a 2,000-page bill that leaves many Americans wondering why these “reforms” seem oddly familiar to failed experiments already tried at the state level. Strange indeed is the fact that many states are working overtime to undo the damage wrought by earlier “reforms” that closely parallel the ones now being pushed in Washington.
Consider the evidence.
Health Care Held Hostage by House Democrats
“Many in this chamber — particularly on the Republican side of the aisle — have long insisted that reforming our medical malpractice laws can help bring down the cost of health care…I know that the Bush administration considered authorizing demonstration projects in individual states to test these ideas. I think it’s a good idea, and I’m directing my Secretary of Health and Human Services to move forward on this initiative today. – President Barack Obama, September 9, 2009, Address to Joint-Session of Congres
CONGRESS GETS SERIOUS ABOUT COUNTRYWIDE SCANDAL
Congress is now one step closer to uncovering the full scope of the collusion between reckless mortgage lenders and high-ranking government officials that ultimately inflated the U.S. housing bubble and brought the world economy to the brink of total collapse. One of the chief offenders in the mortgage meltdown was, doubtlessly, Countrywide Financial, a now-defunct corporate giant that exploited lax government policies to issue trillions of dollars in subprime mortgages on the guarantee that the burden of these toxic assets would ultimately fall on the shoulders of the American taxpayer.
For years, Countrywide’s successful strategy went undetected. Profits were good. The economy was booming. Everybody was happy.
Issa-Towns Reach Agreement on Countrywide Subpoena
Issa-Towns Reach Agreement on Countrywide Subpoena
Oversight Investigators to Receive Countrywide VIP Documents and Records
WASHINGTON. D.C. – In December of 2008, House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Ranking Member Darrell Issa (R-CA) launched an investigation into Countrywide Financial Corporation’s infamous VIP and Friends of Angelo Program that exposed the inner workings of Countrywide’s efforts to buy friends in critical government and industry positions affecting the company’s business interests. Late Friday evening, Issa and Committee Chairman Edolphus Towns (D-NY) reached an agreement to issue a subpoena to Bank of America for documents and records related to Countrywide’s VIP program.
Issa, Jordan Call on Towns, Kucinich to Hold Hearing on Obama’s Latest Czar
House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Ranking Member Darrell Issa (R-CA) and Domestic Policy Subcommittee Ranking Member Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) have sent a letter to Committee Chairman Edolphus Towns (D-MD) and Subcommittee Chairman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) for controversial Obama appointee Kevin Jennings to appear before the Committee.
Among the many questionable activities he engaged in prior to being named Safe Schools Czar, Jennings conducted a seminar containing graphic and disturbing sexually explicit information for 12 year-old schoolchildren while serving as executive director of the Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network, as well as an incident in which he failed to report a 15 year-old student’s sexual abuse from an older man.
Issa Confronts Towns on Countrywide VIP – Challenges Him to Hold Vote to Issue Subpoena
Click HERE to Watch Issa’s Confrontation with Chairman Towns
At a hearing today of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, Ranking Member Darrell Issa (R-CA) challenged Chairman Edolphus Towns (D-NY) to hold a committee vote to issue a subpoena to Bank of America for all information related to the Countrywide VIP Program, which was used to curry favor through sweetheart mortgage deals with Federal Government officials and Members of Congress who held responsibilities related to housing policy. In June, Bank of America expressed their readiness to cooperate with such a request but that amid legal restrictions they could only do so “if a Committee issues a valid subpoena for information, Bank of America would have a valid basis to produce information.”
Treasury IG Agrees to Request by Issa and Collins to Conduct a Review of ACORN
Treasury Department Inspector General, J. Russell George agreed to comply with a request submitted by House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Ranking Member Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) and Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs Ranking Member Susan Collins (R-Maine) to conduct a review of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) and of the IRS’s oversight of nonprofit organizations.
Issa Calls on Towns, Conyers to Hold ACORN Hearings
House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Ranking Member Darrell Issa (R-CA) sent letters today to Committee Chairman Edolphus Towns (D-NY) and Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-MI) calling on theme to immediately convene hearings on the activities of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform NOW (ACORN) that includes key ACORN officials such as ACORN CEO Bertha Lewis, Wade Rathke (ACORN Founder) and Dale Rathke, Elizabeth Kingsley (Counsel to ACORN) and Steve Bachmann (CCI General Counsel) among others.
ACORN Announces Internal Investigator – Haven’t We Been Down This Road Before?
House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Ranking Member Darrell Issa (R-CA) released the following statement today regarding ACORN’s appointment of former Massachusetts Attorney General and President of Common Cause Scott Harshbarger to lead an internal investigation into ACORN’s activities:
“ACORN has already been down this path before. In June of 2008, they hired an outside counsel to conduct an internal review of ACORN, which produced a report that detailed an organization in crisis and the lack of firewalls between its charitable and political activities. More than a year later, ACORN is facing the same criticisms and the same calls for transparency.
“A self-run investigation is not a substitute for an independent investigation. There is no adequate substitute or mechanism that can replace the immediate need for congressional committees to exercise their oversight prerogatives and conduct hearings into ACORN’s management and use of taxpayer dollars.”
Senator Collins and I Write to 7 IG’s to Investigate ACORN Spending
WASHINGTON. D.C. – – Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs Susan Collins (R-Maine) and House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Ranking Member Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) have sent letters to the Inspectors General (IG) for the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the Small Business Administration (SBA), the Federal Election Commission (FEC), the Department of the Treasury, the Elections Assistance Commission, the Department of Labor and the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) calling on them to “review grants, contracts, entitlements and other forms of assistance to ACORN and its affiliates.”
Sunday’s Washington Post Details ACORN in Crisis More Than A Year Ago
Tune in tomorrow morning to Fox News Sunday w/Chris Wallace as ACORN CEO Bertha Lewis and I have what I’m sure will be a spirited discussion. In the meantime, the Washington Post has a game-changing story in Sunday’s paper that includes a depiction of an organization in crisis going back to 2008 – the Post has obtained notes from an ACORN board meeting from August of 2008 that are very revealing.
The first few graphs:
The liberal political organizing group ACORN faced internal chaos and allegations of financial mismanagement and fraud long before two young conservatives embarrassed the group with undercover videos made at field offices in Washington and across the country.
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