> taxes are at the discretion of the House, and the Senate ignored that
Wrong. Taxes (actually, any appropriations or taxation) must originate in the House. Which is easily circumvented by replacing the text of an appropriations bill that passed in the House using a Senate amendment, and has been used far before the passage of the ACA.
This is hardly new, and doesn't mean "taxes are at the discretion of the House". Every bill must be approved by both the House and the Senate (and the ACA did, otherwise it wouldn't even be a law at all), the original bill is required to have technically originated in the House.
"According to the Origination Clause of the United States Constitution, all bills relating to revenue, generally tax bills, must originate in the House of Representatives, consistent with the Westminster system requiring all money bills to originate in the lower house. House appropriations bills begin with "H.R.", meaning "House of Representatives". The Constitution also states that the "Senate may propose or concur with Amendments as on other Bills," so in practice, the Senate and House each drafts and considers its own bill. The Senate then "cuts-and-pastes", substituting the language of its bill of a particular appropriations bill for the language of House bill, then agrees to the bill as amended." [1]
Wrong. Taxes (actually, any appropriations or taxation) must originate in the House. Which is easily circumvented by replacing the text of an appropriations bill that passed in the House using a Senate amendment, and has been used far before the passage of the ACA.
This is hardly new, and doesn't mean "taxes are at the discretion of the House". Every bill must be approved by both the House and the Senate (and the ACA did, otherwise it wouldn't even be a law at all), the original bill is required to have technically originated in the House.
"According to the Origination Clause of the United States Constitution, all bills relating to revenue, generally tax bills, must originate in the House of Representatives, consistent with the Westminster system requiring all money bills to originate in the lower house. House appropriations bills begin with "H.R.", meaning "House of Representatives". The Constitution also states that the "Senate may propose or concur with Amendments as on other Bills," so in practice, the Senate and House each drafts and considers its own bill. The Senate then "cuts-and-pastes", substituting the language of its bill of a particular appropriations bill for the language of House bill, then agrees to the bill as amended." [1]
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appropriation_bill