releases: https://brooks.house.gov/media-center/news-releases/brooks-encourages-appellate-court-find-affordable-care-act-violates
Data license: MIT · Data source: dwillis/congress-press
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| https://brooks.house.gov/media-center/news-releases/brooks-encourages-appellate-court-find-affordable-care-act-violates | Brooks Encourages Appellate Court to Find that Affordable Care Act Violates the Constitution's Origination Clause | 2013-11-14 | 2013 | 2013-11 | Republican | House | AL | Mo Brooks | B001274 | brooks.house.gov | legacy | Washington, D.C. Standing before the U.S. House this morning, Congressman Mo Brooks (AL-05) discussed the case of Sissel v. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which challenges the constitutionality of roughly 20 tax increases that fund the President's healthcare law.Congressman Brooks and thirty-nine other Members of Congress joined to file a friend of the court brief this week that urges the Court of Appeals to obey the Constitution and declare Affordable Care Act taxes unconstitutional because they violate the Origination Clause. Congressman Brooks stated, Constitution Article 1, Section 7 is the Origination Clause. It states, in part, that, All Bills for raising Revenue shall originate in the House.' Brooks continued, The Senate took a House passed bill that raised no taxes, deleted its substantive provisions, and substituted a six page House bill with a 2,074 page Senate bill commonly referred to as ObamaCare that raised roughly $50 billion dollars a year in new taxes. None of the ObamaCare tax increases were in the original House bill. Hence, all of these tax increases originated in the Senate, not the House, thereby violating the Origination Clause requirement that tax increases originate in the House. Brooks concluded, No American court in history has ever upheld the Constitutionality of taxes under the circumstances presented by ObamaCare. Doing so now would undermine and nullify the letter and spirit of the Origination Clause in a Constitution that has served America so well for so long.Mr. Speaker, in a bold and agile display of legal sophistry, United States Supreme Court Justice John Roberts upheld the Affordable Care Act by declaring it a tax while failing to address whether the tax complied with the Origination Clause of our Constitution. The case of Sissel v. the United States Department of Health and Human Services is pending before the D.C. Court of Appeals and headed to the Supreme Court. Sissel challenges the Constitutionality of roughly 20 tax increases that fund Government-Run Health Care. Constitution Article 1, Section 7 is the Origination Clause. It states, in part, that, All Bills for raising Revenue shall originate in the House.' I have joined forty Members of Congress in a friend of the court brief' filed this week that urges the Court of Appeals to obey the Constitution and declare Affordable Care Act taxes unconstitutional because they violate the Origination Clause. On October 8, 2009, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 3590, the Service Member's Home Ownership Tax Act,' a six page bill! H.R. 3590 raised NO taxes or revenue of any kind. To the contrary, H.R. 3590 cut taxes for veterans buying homes. The Senate took H.R. 3590, deleted its substantive provisions, and substituted a six page bill with a 2,074 page bill commonly referred to as ObamaCare that raised roughly $50 billion dollars a year in new taxes, making it one of the largest tax increases in the history of America None of these ObamaCare tax increases were in the original House bill. Hence, all of these new tax increases originated in the Senate, not the House, thereby violating the Origination Clause requirement that tax increases originate in the House. The Origination Clause was subject to significant debate during America's 1787 Constitutional Convention. Massachusetts Convention Delegate and America's fifth Vice-President, Elbridge Gerry, stated that the Origination Clause was the cornerstone of the accommodation' of the Great Compromise of 1787 that persuaded a majority of the states to ratify the Constitution. Stated differently, but for the Origination Clause, there would have been no Constitution and no United States as we know it. The Origination Clause was that important! Virginia Delegate and co-author of our Bill of Rights, George Mason, explained opposition to Senate tax originations when he declared: The Senate did not represent the people, but the States in their political character. It was improper therefore that it should tax the people . . . Again, the Senate is not like the House of Representatives chosen frequently and obliged to return frequently among the people. They are chosen by the States for 6 years, will probably settle themselves at the seat of Government, will pursue schemes for their aggrandizement will be able by [wearing] out the House of Representatives, and taking advantage of their impatience at the close of a long Session, to extort measures for that purpose.' Mr. Speaker, America's founding fathers did not trust the Senate to originate and raise taxes because Senators sat unchallenged for six years, the greater part of a decade, and were too insulated and unaccountable for the taxes they force on American citizens. Mr. Speaker, no American court in history has ever upheld the Constitutionality of taxes under the circumstances presented by ObamaCare. Doing so now would undermine and nullify the letter and spirit of the Origination Clause in a Constitution that has served America so well for so long. Mr. Speaker, every federal judge and justice took an oath to defend, protect, and uphold our Constitution. If these judges will put their partisanship and egos aside . . . If these judges will apply the Constitution as it is written and intended . . . If these judges will simply honor their oath of office . . . Then ObamaCare will be declared unconstitutional because it violates the Origination Clause and America's dangerous and failing experiment with Socialized Medicine will have ended. ObamaCare will be dead, and quality healthcare for Americans will survive. ### | 1 | 2026-03-30T12:14:52Z | 2026-03-30T12:14:52Z |