October 5, 2013 4:00 AM
Obamacare’s Unconstitutional Origins
Tax legislation has to originate in the House; the health-care law didn’t.
By Andrew C. McCarthy
http://www.nationalreview.com/node/360460/print
October 5, 2013 4:00 AM
Obamacare’s Unconstitutional Origins
Tax legislation has to originate in the House; the health-care law didn’t.
By Andrew C. McCarthy
http://www.nationalreview.com/node/360460/print
(excerpt)
Representative Franks has introduced a resolution (H.R. 153) expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that the Obamacare legislation clearly violated the Origination Clause. The measure is gaining momentum. As it rapidly picks up co-signers, the resolution should materially advance the cases filed against Obamacare, including one to be argued this fall in the D.C. Circuit federal appeals court. After all, if a statute violates the Origination Clause, it is a nullity — invalid from the moment of enactment.
Nevertheless, Republicans should not make the same mistake they made during prior legal challenges to Obamacare. This is not a time for leaders once again to sit idly by with fingers crossed, praying that judges do the heavy lifting for them. The legerdemain that characterized Obamacare’s passage, coupled with its patent lack of constitutional legitimacy, should stiffen the resolve of the House to refuse funding — as it is the House’s prerogative to do.
Once again, the president is not telling the truth about Obamacare. The Supreme Court did not endorse it. The Supreme Court said it could only conceivably be sustained as a tax. It still had to pass the Constitution’s tests for valid taxation. It failed.