Bailout: Convoluted, But Constitutional Part I
I am certainly not one who supported the Congressional Bailout Bill. At the same time, I am also not one who has fallen for a fuzzy bunny fantasy, and believe the legislation is itself inherently unconstitutional. This post will address a common assertion of the bailout bill’s unconstitutionality: Revenue Bills must originate in the House.
United States Constitution; Article I; Section 7; Clause 1:
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 Clause is straight forward, and should need no analysis for understanding it. The clause is also used in a common and fallacious claim of the bailout bill’s unconstitutionality. A blog post example:
On Friday, Ocotber 3, the House of Representatives voted to pass the Senate Bail-out bill.
Article 1, Section 7, Clause 1 of The Constitution of the United States says: ?All Bills for raising Revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives??
Therefore the Senate bill is a clear violation of The Constitution of the United States.
“Wall Street Bail-Out: A Constitutional Question“, Libertarians For Ron Paul, October 4th, 2008
The author then went on to reference the Article 1, Section 7, Clause 1 chapter of The Founders’ Constitution, a website published by the University of Chicago Press and the Liberty Fund, as a means to justify the assertion. The author fails to comprehend the error in the analysis: The Bill Did Not Originate in The Senate.
The Senate’s version of the Bailout, passed by the House, was sent to them in the form of an Amendment to a Bill first introduced in The House by Patrick J. Kennedy (D-RI 1st), on March 9, 2007:
H.R.1424: Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act of 2000
The Amendment was passed in Senate Roll Call Vote 213 – Question: On Passage of the Bill (H. R. 1424 As Amended).
On October 2, 2008, Louise M. Slaughter (D-NY 2th) introduced the following Bill:
H.RES.1525 – Title: Providing for consideration of the Senate amendments to the bill (H.R. 1424) to amend section 712 of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, section 2705 of the Public Health Service Act, section 9812 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to require equity in the provision of mental health and substance-related disorder benefits under group health plans, to prohibit discrimination on the basis of genetic information with respect to health insurance and employment, and for other purposes.
House Roll Call Votes 679, and 680 are germane to the passage of H.R. 1525, and occurred on October 3, 2008. The bail-out bill was subsequently passed as a Senate Amendment in House Roll Vote 681. The question on that vote was: Motion to Concur in Senate Amendments To H.R. 1424.
Congressional legislation has been passed in this manner for far longer than any contemporary American citizens have been alive. It was a Constitutional enactment, and followed congressional procedure in its passage. The Bailout Bill was ill-advised, hurriedly rammed through passage, and a massive governmental intervention into the free market. For these reasons, it is a nasty piece of legislation. Still it serves no real purpose other than the spread of asinine conspiracy theories to claim that is is unconstitutional based upon Article I, Section 7, clause 1. Persons who attempt to do so are either delusive fools, or intentional spreaders of delusory ideations. Either way, they are contagions in the free-marketplace of ideas.
