ACORN FUNDED THROUGH OBAMACARE?

John McCormack at the Weekly Standard Blog points out that squirrelly Illinois Senator Roland Burris vowed not to vote for the Reid health care bill unless it had a public option. The bill does not have a public option yet Burris still voted for it. Did something in the bill sufficiently alleviate Burris' concerns? Perhaps it was in the Manager's Amendment of the bill, which addresses something called - are you ready for this - the "Office of Minority Health". Sounds a little discriminatory, doesn't it?

Burris, according to WS, pointed to the MANAGER'S AMENDMENT when asked why he voted in support of a bill without a public option:

The provision he cites, found on pages 240 through 248 of the manager's amendment, requires that six different agencies each establish an “Office of Minority Health.” The agencies are the “Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Health Resources and Services Administration, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, the Food and Drug Administration, and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.”

Potentially, the most disturbing part of this is that while the most recent ruling on whether ACORN can receive federal funds was that withholding funds is unconstitutional. That may still be overturned but the Manager's amendment appears to have insulated ACORN should they be ruled ineligible for those federal funds:

Earlier this year, Congress passed and the president signed into law a ban on federal funding for ACORN, but a judge ruled that that law was unconstitutional. If a higher court reverses that ruling, ACORN may be prohibited from receiving funds through the Office of Minority Health earmark. But according to the Senate legislative aide, ACORN would still "absolutely" qualify for federal funding through the provision in the underlying Reid bill because the anti-ACORN appropriations amendment would not apply to funds provided through the health care exchanges.

This would mean that a United States senator is in support of protecting an organization exposed as an enabler of, among other things, a child prostitution ring.

h/t to BG