Excellent column by Lord Monckton!
Article I, Section 7, of the Constitution:
"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."
- The Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) was written by special interest groups. No member of the House or Senate even read the legislation they voted for. That clearly means to me that it did not originate in the House of Representatives.
- The legislation did not include a tax. It was a penalty for not engaging in commerce. It was the Supreme Court that revised the legislation to make it a tax. Again, that clearly means to me that it did not originate in the House of Representatives. The tax originated at the Supreme Court.
- The GOP attempt to defund Obamacare does indeed need some splaining to the American people. Speaker Boehner should be on TV saying something similar to the following:"As per Article I, Section 7, of the Constitution, no legitimate tax has been created so as to fund Obamacare. Therefore, at this present time, the Affordable Care Act has absolutely no power over the American people. The president, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid have shut down the government in an attempt to trick House Republicans into originating tax (funding) legislation that gives Obamacare life. From this point forward, our attempts to fund the federal government will make no mention of the Affordable Care Act (or explicitly exclude funding [a tax] for it). Think of it as a free contraceptive. We won't give it life (no conception), and therefore, we continue to stand by our party platform, which is not to destroy life."
I certainly hope that Speaker Boehner goes further by only presenting legislation that puts a halt to any borrowing and also allows for balancing the budget and paying money down (gradually reducing) on the massive debt we now have. Let's give life to Joseph Farah's "No More Red Ink" campaign.
Ray Makuch