Mitt’s Adviser: Mandate Not a Tax

Members of President Obama’s team, such as White House Chief of Staff Jack Lew and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi have made an effort recently to counter the Supreme Court’s claim that the Obamacare fee for not purchasing health insurance is really a “penalty,” not a “tax.” Their effort got some unexpected support Monday from Mitt Romney senior adviser Eric Fehrnstrom. “The governor disagreed with the ruling of the court,” Fehrnstrom told MSNBC’s Chuck Todd. “He agreed with the dissent that was written by Justice [Antonin] Scalia, which very clearly stated that the mandate was not a tax.” Fehrnstrom took the opposite position latched onto by many Republicans in the past week: that the SCOTUS ruling is proof that Obama’s health-insurance mandate is a tax, though, as Sarah Palin pointed out last week, President Obama promised it was not.