The White House seemed to get an unlikely ally in its position that
the mandate under the health care law is not a tax but a penalty: Mitt
Romney. While Republicans have been tripping over themselves in recent
days to highlight that the Supreme Court’s ruling said the health care
mandate is valid as an exercise in the government’s power to tax, their
presidential candidate doesn’t seem to agree, reports the Washington Post.
“The governor disagreed with the ruling of the court. He agreed with
the dissent that was written by Justice Scalia that very clearly said
that the mandate was not a tax,” Eric Fehrnstrom, a senior adviser to
Romney, said on MSNBC.
“The governor believes what we put in place in Massachusetts was a
penalty, and he disagrees with the court’s ruling that the mandate was a
tax.”
