What's in a name?

Romney, in Shift, Says Health Care Mandate Is a Tax 

By GERRY MULLANY, NYT
3:19 p.m. | Updated 

Mitt Romney said on Wednesday that the individual mandate in President Obama’s health care law was “a tax,” just days after his campaign said the candidate had rejected that characterization.

In an interview with Jan Crawford of CBS News, Mr. Romney said: “While I agreed with the dissent, that’s taken over by the fact that the majority of the court said it’s a tax, and therefore it is a tax. They have spoken.”

“They concluded it was a tax. That’s what it is, and the American people know that President Obama has broken the pledge he made,” he added. “He said he wouldn’t raise taxes on middle-income Americans. Not only did he raise the $500 billion that was already in the bill, it’s now clear that his mandate as described by the Supreme Court is a tax.”

On Monday, Mr. Romney’s presidential campaign said that the health care mandate should be thought of as a penalty and not as a tax.

(More here.)