The Most Important Battle of the Week: Blocking Obama’s War on the Suburbs

Imagine if vulnerable Republican incumbents, instead of curling up into a fetal position in the face of Democrat attacks, had an 80-20 issue relevant to the everyday lives of their constituents to shove down the throats of their opponents? Well, Senator Mike Lee has just granted them that opportunity with his amendment to the 2017 Transportation-HUD (Housing and Urban Development) appropriations bill, which would defund Obama’s war on the suburbs, otherwise known as the Affirmative Further Fair Housing (AFFH) rule placed into the federal register last July. Will GOP members, particularly Senators Ron Johnson, Kelly Ayotte, and Pat Toomey, take yes for an answer?

The AFFH represents the worst form of social transformation without representation and is the capstone of Obama’s effort to fundamentally transform America. It is an ad hoc federal gerrymander to force local governments to impose low-income housing in areas HUD targets for social engineering while funneling funds to left-wing community organizing groups to transfer people from the inner city into suburban neighborhoods. It represents one of the worst violations of federalism, property rights and the true ideals of equal opportunity expressed in the Declaration of Independence. 

Every American has the right and opportunity to purchase property, housing or rentals in any part of the country. However, the federal government has no constitutional power to mandate the breakdown of natural settlement and development for different neighborhoods and counties in order to enrich their favored NGOs. Under the AFFH, HUD unilaterally decides that not enough individuals from a given race or ethnicity live in a particular jurisdiction. Then, in order to leverage the local government to “identify significant determinants that influence or contribute to those issues, and set forth fair housing priorities and goals to address fair housing issues and determinants,” HUD threatens to withhold community development block grants.

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