One of the constitutional disputes triggered by the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) is whether by substituting new material for the original House-passed bill (H.R. 3590), the Senate exceeded its constitutional power to amend the original measure.  This, in turn, has provoked a debate over whether the Founders considered complete substitutes to be valid amendments. A recently-republished piece of evidence suggests that they did.  The Constitution’s Origination Clause requires that “All Bills for raising Revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives; but the Senate may propose or concur with Amendments as on other Bills.”  Because the final version of Obamacare imposed a variety of taxes, it unquestionably was a “Bill for raising Revenue.” Obamacare’s taxes, appropriations, and health care regulations did not exist in the House-passed version of H.R. 3590.  That incarnation of the bill was only a few pages long and...(Read Full Post)