This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Wednesday, May 14, 2014.

I'm Caleb Brown.

Lawsuits challenging Obamacare are once again reaching the nation's highest courts.

The US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit recently heard

a case involving the claim that the Affordable Care Act's tax on people without

health insurance still violates the Constitution. Tim Sandifer, the Pacific Legal Foundation, brought the case. the suing the government, particularly over the Affordable Care Act, I think.

But we bring these cases because we believe they have constitutional merit and with the

intent of reaching the Supreme Court if and when possible. One thing that we know about the origination clause is it

does not allow the Senate to originate revenue bills. That's pretty much the

only thing that's absolutely crystal clear about that

provision of the Constitution. It says the House can originate revenue bills and the

Senate can amend these bills and it's not really clear exactly what the difference between

originate and amend is but the one thing we know for certain is the Senate

cannot originate these bills. The question in this case is whether the Senate

can get around that restriction by passing an amendment whereby

it originates a revenue bill.

James Madison, interestingly enough, opposed, including the origination clause in the Constitution at the Philadelphia

Convention. The reason he opposed it was because he said well you know adding

this clause is going to cause us to have these these debates if the Senate tries

to use its amendment power to completely replace a House bill

and do so by creating a revenue measure, then it's going to lead the lawsuits.

And knowing that, the delegates at Philadelphia included it in the

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