Political Quotes

“in the past 3 weeks I think I have come to the floor three times to discuss the case on the President's health care reform bill: one time to discuss the constitutionality of the individual mandate and another time to deal with the severability clause. I come now to speak about the unconstitutionality of the massive expansion of Medicaid. Those are three of four issues that the Court is going to deal with. My colleagues probably remember the Court has extended the period of time they normally deal with arguments before them from 1 hour to 5\1/2\ hours because this is such a very important case. Today I wish to talk about the far-reaching implications of this mandate, but also about the constitutionality of the Medicaid expansion. If the Supreme Court rules the individual mandate unconstitutional, it will have the effect of striking down this new law that has not been fully implemented. If the Supreme Court rules that the Medicaid expansion and the Affordable Care Act is unconstitutional, it has the potential to cause significant changes in a program that has been in operation for the last 46 years. Just to remind everybody about Medicaid, it was created in 1965 at exactly the same time Medicare was created. Where Medicare was created to provide health care coverage for our senior citizens, Medicaid was created as a safety net for low-income individuals. Medicare is run exclusively by the Federal Government. Medicaid is a Federal-State partnership.…”