The culmination of decades of shredding of our Constitution.Article 1 - The Legislative Branch
Section 7 - Revenue Bills, Legislative Process, Presidential Veto
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.
Good on Sen DeMint (R-SC) for not voting. His resignation was effective at 11:59pm last night.
The Senators whose class ended in 2012 should not have voted either.
Senator “Dung Heap” Harken voted NAY? What the.....?
The RINO-Marxists have identified themselves—Time to go hunting.
$620B in tax hikes; a mere $15B in cuts. The prevaricator-in-chief claimed to want a ‘balanced’ approach. Instead he has taken a wrecking ball to the economy. Can ANOTHER downgrade of the US credit rating be far away?
I cannot believe all the yea votes from the GOP.
The culmination of decades of shredding of our Constitution.Bump.
I post the following excellent points from a fellow FReeper who prefers to remain anonymous:
89-8?
I guess that it appears a few senators voted after the expiration of their terms of office would not have changed the outcome of the bill?
According to my reading of the Constitution, the terms of office of all senators of the first class expired at Midnight 31 December 2012.
That the next session will not be sworn in until 3 January 2013 is irrelevant in my mind.
If the Senate wanted to vote on this bill at 2:00 am this morning – their first order of business after midnight should’ve been to re-swear all returning senators to the first, second and third classes and to swear in for the first time all the new Senators-elect to the first class.
Senators, like James Webb among others, should not have voted after the expiration of their terms of office.
Webb’s term of office ended at midnight.
Most years this doesn’t matter – because rarely (if ever) has a Senate vote occurred at 2:00 am 1 January.
I believe this was an illegal (un-Constitutional) vote.
The Constitution plainly uses the word “year,” i.e. “vacated at the end of the… YEAR” not the end of the current session.
Just another egregious violation of the plain meaning of the Constitution – I guess nobody gives a squat anymore.
Nothing in the XVII amendment changes their terms of office from “year” to “session.”
BOHICA.
“American Taxpayer RELIEF Act of 2012”....RELIEF!!!!!!!!!!!?