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The Real Lessons of the HUD Scandal
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15421 |
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CURRENT ISSUES
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12 / 1989 |
2,590 Words |
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Stuart M. Butler
Stuart M. Butler is vice president of domestic and economic
policy studies at the Heritage Foundation. |
There is a famous scene in the movie Casablanca in which Claude Raines, as the French chief of police, is closing down Rick's American Bar on orders from the wartime German authorities. He uses the pretext of illegal gambling. "I hear there's been gambling going on here," he tells his friend Rick, played by Humphrey Bogart. "I'm shocked, shocked!" Just then, an employee sidles up to the police chief: "Your winnings, sir," he announces. Raines, obviously embarrassed, pockets the money and quickly proceeds to close the bar.
The recent congressional hearings on influence peddling at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) no doubt proved entertaining to Casablanca aficionados, since they bore such a remarkable resemblance to the movie scene--except that there has been no evidence of any embarrassment. Congressman after congressman took air time to express shock that influence had been used to secure agency grants for certain housing developers. Strangely, when back home running for election, these same lawmakers normally boast of their own abilities to win grants for influential constituents.
It is easy merely to be cynical about Congress' reaction to the grantsmanship that was taking place at HUD during the Reagan administration. But if federal housing policy is to be put back to track, it is vital that Americans appreciate the real causes of the scandal and what needs to be done to reform the agency. For while the congressional investigation has centered on the breakdown of management controls at HUD during the Reagan administration, the real culprit is the design of federal housing programs themselves. These were created with the intention of allowing influence to be used to channel dollars to developers--it's
... (1997 of 16248 Characters)
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