Posted on 12/01/2010 8:51:43 AM PST by SeekAndFind
Apparently, no one told Harry Reid to check Article I, Section 7 of the Constitution before passing S510, the food-safety bill that Democrats hailed as a major lame-duck session achievement earlier this week — and which ran afoul of their own party in the House. Section 107 of the bill raises taxes, and as any Constitutional scholar can attest — or anyone else who has actually read the document that Senators swore to uphold when taking office — only the House of Representatives has that power:
A food safety bill that has burned up precious days of the Senate’s lame-duck session appears headed back to the chamber because Democrats violated a constitutional provision requiring that tax provisions originate in the House.
By pre-empting the House’s tax-writing authority, Senate Democrats appear to have touched off a power struggle with members of their own party in the House. The Senate passed the bill Tuesday, sending it to the House, but House Democrats are expected to use a procedure known as “blue slipping” to block the bill, according to House and Senate GOP aides.
The debacle could prove to be a major embarrassment for Senate Democrats, who sought Tuesday to make the relatively unknown bill a major political issue by sending out numerous news releases trumpeting its passage.
Section 107 of the bill includes a set of fees that are classified as revenue raisers, which are technically taxes under the Constitution. According to a House GOP leadership aide, that section has ruffled the feathers of Ways and Means Committee Democrats, who are expected to use the blue slip process to block completion of the bill.
Now what? The House will either block the bill entirely or pass its own version of it. The latter option will mean that Reid will have to hold a vote to reopen debate on the bill, and will need unanimous consent to limit that debate. Otherwise, it could take the rest of the legislative calendar in the Senate to move the bill before the session ends and the bill has to be reintroduced. Even if the House cooperated, the bill could later be challenged in court as being procedurally deficient.
Reid can forget about unanimous consent. Roll Call notes that Tom Coburn won’t agree to it due to his strong opposition to the bill in any form. Meanwhile, the issue will continue to draw attention to Democrats’ continued expansion of the regulatory state while ignoring jobs and the budget.
Yesterday, Senate Democrats were crowing about this bill. Today, they’ll be eating crow.
We’ll see.
Perhaps they will just deem that they have all the power in the world.
Interesting. This tends to validate Hamilton’s insistence that the two houses of Congress would serve as a check on one another through sheer jealousy if nothing nobler. Don’t expect this to get wide play in the media, however. They’re still trying to blame Bush for the economic decisions made in the Democrat Congress.
I’m not optimistic any Dem anywhere will really block this bill on Constitutional grounds. Reid will huddle with Pelosi and they will dream up some clever way to bypass the law and pass the bill.
Don't worry about that old piece of paper that doesn't get Upheld in Court anymore. We just had the Obamacare ruling that the Constituion Commerce Clause (which will soon be claimed to cover the Faggot/Dyke Marriage issues), is the catch-all, and the Obamacare is thus Constitutional as a result.
The same with those pesky non-Agrigiant Corp. farmers; we will regulate the snot out of 'em, so they can't compete with Mega-Corp Agribusiness.
After all, the Commerce Clause is used "FOR THE COMMON GOOD".
It will be more ‘creative government’ from the same clowns who brought us ‘Obamacare’
” We’ll see. “
Agree — given the Dim’s absolute talent for twisting the Constitution out of recognition (or ignoring it altogether) to get what they want to expand Government, this sounds like ‘whistling in the dark’......
That's assuming anyone outside the beltway hears about it after the media locks it down.
Half the people in this country don't even know that only the House can originate tax and spend bills. Most of the morons think the President just passes spending bills all on his own. And since all libs think the Constitution should be ignored, I can't imagine any of them finding fault with the Dems in the Senate on this anyway.
Don't get me wrong...I sure hope this thing can get stopped, I'm just not holding my breath till it does.
We will “Never give in, never give in, never; never; never; never - in nothing, great or small, large or petty - never give in except to convictions of honor and good sense”
(Winston Churchill)
You can try to pass some S-510 bill to regulate farmers, both small and large. We will not submit! We will not give in and we will not give up. You are wrong again. It is time for you to retire. You are too far gone and out of touch with us, the people in your district, to be of any use anymore.
Beau
See here now...
Senator John Glenn said that they could not run this country if they had to go by the Constitution.
FWIW— ADM is up 1.5% (roughly) and Monsanto up 2.5% in this morning’s trading...
” Senator John Glenn said that they could not run this country if they had to go by the Constitution. “
That might have been a typo - ‘run’ SB ‘ruin’......
Just ask them.
“Blue slipping” is what the House does when the Senate usurps its power of the purse. To put it simply, such a bill is dead. The House won’t even consider it.
Correct, but will the House do it?
Its already done. The may both be Democrats but the chambers operate very differently and the House And Ways Means Committee’s feathers were ruffled. So the bill is effectively dead since Tom Coburn won’t give consent to proceed on it unless changes are made to his satisfaction.
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