Kelly: Obama’s Plan to ‘Diversify’ Neighborhoods, ‘an Attempt’ to Change Way They Vote
KELLY: “Breaking tonight. The man who changed your health care system forever is now pushing to change your neighborhood. That is if Uncle Sam feels it is not inclusive enough. Welcome to The Kelly File, everyone. I'm Megyn Kelly. The Obama administration calls it a plan to diversify neighborhoods and promote fair housing choice. Critics say this is the most radical, politically explosive change President Obama has attempted in his six-plus years in office, calling it social engineering of the worst kind. The feds now want to take billions in housing grant money and condition it on communities proving that they are sufficiently inclusive and diverse. They want to look around the area you live and decide if your town is diverse enough. If not, the feds will order low-income housing or else, much of your federal funding for your town will dry up. Experts say this is more than an attempt to change the way America's neighborhoods look. It may also be an attempt to change the way they vote. Joining us now, Nationally Syndicated Radio Host Richard Fowler, and Fox News Contributor and former chief presidential speechwriter to George W. Bush, Marc Thiessen. We begin tonight with Mark. And so Mark, this is being described as something that President Obama has had in the works for years, but has only now found the guts to actually put out there as a Housing and Urban Development proposed final rule because his term is almost done and this is the time to do it. The last thing on the list? Change the neighborhoods.”
THIESSEN: “Absolutely. Look, this is what happens when you take a community the organizer and put him in the White House. He wants to organize your community from Washington, D.C. I mean, this is an insidious idea. What they're trying to do is engage in social engineering of local communities from Washington, D.C. They are going to take data -- collect data on the racial makeup, social makeup, economic makeup of communities and then either bribe or blackmail them into changing their zoning policies. This is a fundamental assault on freedom on local government, on the principles that this country was built on.”
KELLY: “They don't want, quote, ‘unequal neighborhoods.’ Unequal neighborhoods. They think too many communities are too white, too privileged with too big McMansions, too many big McMansions and they want to diverse the communities whether the communities want it or not.”
THIESSEN: “Well, you know, the way to diversify communities, we believe in diversifying communities, too, as conservatives. The way you do that is through economic opportunity, the way you do that is you create opportunities for people at the bottom of the economic ladder to afford housing in these communities. This is not by building more affordable housing in the affluent communities. It’s by helping more Americans afford housing in affluent communities. And right now, the problem is, is that people at the bottom in the Obama economy can't get ahead…”
