Clearly there is no shame in the culture of conceit in which NPR’s “Morning Edition” co-host Steve Inskeep lives, and like NPR, he is lying to the American people.

The supposed point of his March 24 op-ed in the Wall Street Journal was to refute the irrefutable – that NPR is an egregiously and unabashedly hard left, Soros-backed operation subsidized by taxpayers.

But Inskeep, like other NPR representatives, fraudulently claims “emails show that NPR refused the money” from the Muslim Brotherhood front group.  At no point did NPR ever do so, and on the contrary the emails released by NPR did quite the opposite.  They confirmed that NPR’s top executives had no objections whatsoever to taking money from a front group controlled and primarily financed by a jihadist organization explicitly committed to the subversion and destruction of this country.  They were moving along with the perfectly standard procedures for accepting an institutional donation of that size.

Even long after we had established our Muslim Brotherhood front group status and explained that our purpose was to counter and replace the “Jewish” control over the American media, NPR’s top brass only became more and more eager, even putting “a dollop of urgency” on advancing the process, in Betsy Liley’s words.

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Big Labor and politicians across the United States have transferred union costs to taxpayers.  For example, SEIU Local 444 (The Sanitation Officers Association, see related snow  slowdown stories) has six full-time union officials who are paid full-time city benefits and salary, yet work 0.00% of the time for New York City.  These Sanitation Officers are working on everything but New York City business – including political activities and golf outings – all on the taxpayers’ dime.

SEIU sanitation union transfers its costs to NY City taxpayers and provides an excellent place to cut the budget.

This means taxpayers are essentially paying for union bosses’ no-show jobs.

In 2009, SEIU Local 444 local President Joseph Mannion was paid $108,340 plus benefits, including seniority credits, for working fulltime for the union.  According to the union’s 2009 IRS report, Mannion was paid an additional $83,046 by the union. That’s over $190,000 plus benefits.

This type of union cost transfer to taxpayers is commonplace.

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Last night, defying the will of a bipartisan majority of the House and Senate, Democrats voted to allow the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) to receive federal taxpayer dollars.

In September, large Congressional majorities in both houses voted to sever all ties between the federal government and ACORN.  The Senate vote was 85-11; the House vote was 345-75.  You’d think that those votes, which USA Today described as prohibiting “any federal funding for the community organizing group,” would have settled the matter.  You’d be wrong.

Months later, with the country’s focus on jobs, healthcare, and the Global War on Terror, Democrats are moving to restore funding to ACORN.  Last night, Rep. Tom Latham (R-IA) offered an amendment during deliberations on the Democrats’ massive year-end appropriations bill to clarify the prohibition on federal funds going to ACORN or its subsidiaries.  That amendment was shot down on a 5-9 party line vote as Republicans sided with taxpayers while Democrats stood with ACORN.

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Until last Thursday, many Americans assumed ACORN’s massive tax windfall was just a way to funnel taxpayer money to a radical organization. That was before the shocking video revelation that ACORN Housing staff — funded by millions of dollars of the public’s money — is willing to offer their “counseling services” to would-be operators of child prostitute rings.

Clearly, it’s time to take a closer look at how taxpayer money drives the ACORN empire.

The Public Trough

Until recently, few knew much about ACORN or the reach of its 300-plus organizations with a hundred-million-dollar budget. The main financial sustenance for the behemoth comes from unions (which outsource dirty work, strategy, and anti-corporate attacks to the group), powerful and politically minded non-profit foundations, political campaigns (including $800,000 from then-Senator Barack Obama’s presidential campaign in 2008) and taxpayer money.

That public trough has been open to those who seem to feel they are more equal than others. The Washington Examiner investigated and found out that “at least $53 million in federal funds have gone to ACORN activists since 1994.” (See the spreadsheet here.)

A large chunk of that money flows from the federal government to the ACORN Housing Corporation (AHC). On the group’s IRS filings for the fiscal year ending in June 2007, AHC reported taking in more than $2.8 million in that year alone — accounting for approximately 30 percent of that year’s budget. A 2008 report from the Consumers Rights League found that from 2004 through 2006, government funds accounted for 40 percent of the group’s $18.3 million in revenue.

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