"The Origination Clause requires
“all bills for raising revenue” to “originate” in the House of
Representatives. But the Obama Administration’s health care law did not
originate in the House; it originated in the Senate, when Senator Harry
Reid “amended” a bill the House had passed by striking out all of its
text and replacing it with the Senate-written bill that eventually
became Obamacare. At that time, Congress claimed that the bill wasnot a tax—and indeed, the Obama Administration continues to insist that it is not a tax—but
this summer the Supreme Court issued a 5-4 decision ruling that while
Congress had no power to force people to buy health insurance, it did
have power to tax them for not buying insurance. The justices did not
address the question of whether such a “tax” was constitutional under
the Origination Clause, because none of the lawyers raised that
issue—until now." [Volokh Conspiracy]
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