Stanley Kurtz, principal investigator at the Center for Ethics and Public Policy, spoke to Mark Levin about the “Affirmatively Promoting Fair Housing Standard” (AFFH) added by former President Barack Obama to the Fair Housing Act of 1968, which the Conservative scholar said he aims to expand federal influence over the suburbs.
Kurtz said in an interview broadcast Sunday at 8 pm ET on “Life, Liberty & Levin” that Obama and his wing of the Democratic Party viewed the suburbs as “fundamentally unfair” communities that prevent taxes from flowing to the surrounding urban cities .
On Thursday, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Dr. Ben Carson announced that he is withdrawing Obama’s AFFH Rule of the Fair Housing Act, saying the rule “was an overreach by Washington bureaucrats not elected in local communities “- one point echoed by Kurtz.
Carson called the rule a “ruse for social engineering under the guise of desegregation, essentially turning HUD into a national zoning board.”
Kurtz, in his interview with Levin, said that Obama “represents an increasingly influential segment of the Democratic Party that doesn’t really think well of the suburbs.”
“Of course, like [Levin] mentioned, [Democrats] wants suburban votes. What they are a little less eager to understand is that they consider the suburbs in some way fundamentally unfair. “
Kurtz said Obama Democrats oppose the nation’s suburban structure because, most of the time, people who move out of liberal cities and settle in the suburbs often do so to escape high ground. taxes and regulation in urban areas.
“That is seen by Obama and many other Democrats as a way to selfishly save your money from the less affluent in cities,” he said. “So the Obama administration, following language in the original Fair Housing Act that did not have all the meanings it gave it, created a really massive rule called [AFFH]”
Kurtz said that, as he did in designing ObamaCare, Obama created a new “transformative rule” for the government.
“Obama took that brief mention and created a transformative role, a bit like Obamacare, and that it’s a massive rule that does a lot of things … The bottom line is that AFFH would radically undermine the political and economic independence of America’s suburbs,” said.
“It would allow bureaucrats in Washington, in the Department of Housing and Urban Development, to control zoning laws, to control the location of transportation and business districts, even to some extent the drawing of school districts. In other words, almost all The responsibility of the local government could, under AFFH, fall under the de facto control of the feds. “
Kurtz pointed to southeastern Pennsylvania, where urban Philadelphia serves as the anchor city of what is called the suburban “Main Line” of Montgomery and Chester counties, an economically important area of traditionally wealthier communities that are located in what ever It was once the “Main Line” of the Pennsylvania Railroad, now the “Keystone” line from Amtrak to Lancaster.
Throughout the 20th century, many Philadelphia residents moved to Montgomery County from the city proper for various reasons, creating a commuter corridor that exists to this day.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
“[The AFFH] it will try to create a government layer between the federal government and the local government, a government layer that corresponds to its greater metropolitan area, “Kurtz explained.
“So if you are in Montgomery County, you will try to eliminate your government responsibilities and hand them over to the Philadelphia metro area,” he said. “[That] you will probably end up taking some of your tax money – so there is a lot at AFFH. “
Carson said the AFFH rule added by Obama will be replaced by a new rule that reduces the burden on local jurisdictions to demonstrate that they are actively taking steps to address historical patterns of racial segregation in order to qualify for HUD funding.
“Washington doesn’t have to dictate what’s best to meet the unique needs of its local community,” he added.
Associated Press contributed to this report..
