<P> With the power to tax implicitly comes the power to spend the revenues raised thereby in order to meet the objectives and goals of the government . To what extent this power ought to be utilized by the Congress has been the source of continued dispute and debate since the inception of the federal government, as will be explained below . However, interpretations recognizing an implicit power to spend have been questioned . </P> <P> The Supreme Court has also found that, in addition to the power to use taxes to punish disfavored conduct, Congress can also use its power to spend to encourage favored conduct . In South Dakota v. Dole, the Court upheld a federal law which withheld highway funds from states that did not raise their legal drinking age to 21 . </P> <P> Several Constitutional provisions address the taxation and spending authority of Congress . These include both requirements for the apportionment of direct taxes and the uniformity of indirect taxes, the origination of revenue bills within the House of Representatives, the disallowal of taxes on exports, the General Welfare requirement, the limitation on the release of funds from the treasury except as provided by law, and the apportionment exemption of the Sixteenth Amendment . Additionally, Congress and the legislatures of the various states are prohibited from conditioning the right to vote in federal elections on payment of a poll tax or other types of tax by the Twenty - fourth Amendment . </P> <P> The Constitution provides in the Origination Clause that all bills for raising revenue must originate in the House of Representatives . The idea underlying the clause is that Representatives, being the most numerous branch of Congress, and most closely associated with the people, know best the economic conditions of the people they represent, and how to generate revenues for the support of government in the least burdensome manner . Additionally, Representatives are regarded the most accountable to the people, and thus are least likely to exercise the taxing power abusively or injudiciously . </P>

Which has more power over taxation under the articles of confederation