Someone raised this issue here earlier, but it does seem to me under the circumstances that the Senate's version of a minimum wage increase could be doomed because it includes changes to tax law, and the Constitution requires all revenue-raising bills to originate in the House.  I would think this could easily be overcome with a fairly common parliamentary tactic the Senate uses to get around that, but it doesn't seem to be the case here.  

What the Senate often does to originate its own tax or tax-related bills is take up a bill the House already passed that is still pending in the Senate, vitiate it (erase all its contents), and replace them with those of another bill on taxes the Senate just passed.  I can see a couple possible catches here though: it's so early in the 110th Congress that I don't know if the House has passed (and thus sent to the Senate) any bills other than the Democrats' initial 6 priorities.  And of those bills, only one addresses taxes: the one repealing cuts for oil and gas companies.  The Senate could vitiate that bill and insert its compromise minimum wage bill, then pass it and send it to the House, which should meet Constitutional muster.  But then the Senate couldn't pass the same bill or a similar one on oil company tax breaks--because that also has to originate in the House.  And while the minimum wage is a higher priority than repealing the oil tax breaks, why sacrifice one of your Six for '06 priorities for another?  And why would the all-powerful Demoratic House majority help the more mixed Senate by giving them another tax bill to vitiate and send back as a compromise minimum wage increase with tax cuts they (rightly) oppose?

The House can certainly rely on the Constitution at this point to justify not acting on the Senate bill.  And it can stand firm and refuse to pass a compromise minimum wage bill, playing a sort of kabuki with the Senate.  I think it would come down to who the public and the media blame for the stalemate: House Democrats for being stubborn, or Senate Republicans for adding poison pill amendments--some unconstitutional.  Polling shows 90% support for the clean minimum wage increase, but I haven't seen any polls on whether the public would support or oppose the Senate bill, or given the choice, prefer it or the House version (my instinct leans toward the latter).  I suspect the determinative round of this battle will play out in PR and organizing.