Re: The Sad Case of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act
No it doesn't. Existing medicaid funding says to me "some funding" in response to the portion of the law that took away ALL funding. He's not requiring that they keep funding at the same level. That's up to Congress, otherwise what you're saying in your interpretation that Congress can't close the budget deficit by reducing this program per Roberts order. That makes no sense.
Now to the extreme example of cutting a state's funding to a dollar, I'm sure that state would sue and then perhaps the Court would decide yet again if this is vindictive on the part of Congress or not. Can't get into the "what ifs" but I don't read this as Congress can't cut a penny from existing funding. That's stupid.
Here's what Chief Justice Roberts had to say... the very last sentence of the quote seems pretty clear to me: Existing Medicaid funding is fully protected. Read for yourself and see if the English language means the same thing to you as to me:
Doesn't this last sentence seem pretty clear and unequivocable??
http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/scotushealth.pdf, starting on the page marked 45 in the upper right corner.
No it doesn't. Existing medicaid funding says to me "some funding" in response to the portion of the law that took away ALL funding. He's not requiring that they keep funding at the same level. That's up to Congress, otherwise what you're saying in your interpretation that Congress can't close the budget deficit by reducing this program per Roberts order. That makes no sense.
Now to the extreme example of cutting a state's funding to a dollar, I'm sure that state would sue and then perhaps the Court would decide yet again if this is vindictive on the part of Congress or not. Can't get into the "what ifs" but I don't read this as Congress can't cut a penny from existing funding. That's stupid.