Jim Small at the Arizona Capitol Times brings us the news that lawmakers are reversing the spending cuts they made to KidsCare and AHCCCC:

The bill would authorize the state to accept additional federal stimulus money to pay for the programs, which would allow 310,000 people to continue coverage under AHCCCS and another 47,000 children to receive coverage under KidsCare.

The AHCCCS eligibility reduction and the elimination of KidsCare were both part of the budget for the upcoming year, which lawmakers approved last month.

Lawmakers are trying to reverse both decisions because the cuts ran afoul of the federal health care law that was signed into law earlier in March. Under that law, changes to state programs would disqualify states from receiving federal health care money. That meant Arizona would forfeit $7.8 billion.

Republicans said they had no choice but to restore the health care spending, even though the state can’t sustain the spending long term.