Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Under Obamacare, Acorn Will Come To Your House And Weigh You...

No, seriously. It's in the freakin' bill. From CNS:

The health care reform bill approved by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee (HELP) would provide federal grants to state and local governments and a “national network of community-based organizations” to "promote healthy living and reduce disparities" and to monitor people's weight, eating, exercise habits and other individual behaviors that affect health at the community level.

The language instituting the program, entitled "Community Transformation Grants," is on pages 382-387 of the bill as posted on the committee's Web site.

The bill states that only three types of entities will be eligible to receive grants under the program:
"a--(A) State government agency;
(B) local government agency; or
(C) national network of community-based organizations."

HELP is the only committee, incidentally, to have voted on the bill. So this is language they supposedly read, and approved.

Chris Dodd (D - Connecticut) admits this is an opening for ACORN:

Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) said that it is possible that the controversial group ACORN could qualify for the available grants. “I don’t believe so, but they could be,” Dodd told CNSNews.com, in an earlier interview. “I just don’t want to say categorically it’s the case.” “I’m not saying yes or no, I just don’t know. I don’t think it’s a blanket thing that anyone applies necessarily,” he said. “There would have to be criteria by which an organization qualifies to receive those grants".

Uh-huh. And since this group is a favorite of Barack Obama, is there any doubt that they would "qualify" to engage in this type of "health enforcement" ?

And what would fall under ACORN's jurisdiction? Oh, just about every aspect of your life:

"In carrying out subparagraph (A), the eligible entity shall, with respect to residents in the community, measure--"
(i) decreases in weight;"
(ii) increases in proper nutrition;"
(iii) increases in physical activity;"
(iv) decreases in tobacco use prevalence;"
(v) other factors using community-specific data from the Behavioral Risk Surveillance Survey; and
(vi) other factors as determined by the Secretary [at HHS].”

And what would those "other factors" be? Who knows; but the law is intentionally written as open ended so that just about any future activity can fall under the domain of the HHS Secretary, and ACORN. As we quoted Obama's "pay czar" earlier today, as he wallowed in his unchecked power to interfere in the private sector:

"Anything is possible under the law."

Remember that quote. The next one that will be using it is our HHS Secretary.....

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