ACORN=Waste

Thought of the day: One of the hidden costs of subsidies is monitoring the process. Of course, politicians never bring this dirty little fact to light when they are pushing a program that will "benefit" society. ACORN is just such a program. No one bothered to check on their practices because like many government programs that are essentially political patronage the cost of monitoring is rife with costly political risk. Even if a Republican had, out of the blue, pushed against funding for ACORN--a hydra headed operation with a massive network--without the scandal now brewing, I believe that he would have been rebuffed by his own party. Heck, even Bush funded ACORN without any protest.

This is a lesson. Beware of government funding any program that proposes to fix society's ills. They always have very expensive hidden costs.