Eric Fehrnstrom, senior adviser to the Romney Campaign, said to Chuck on today's Daily Rundown that Gov. Romney believes the health care mandate put in place in Massachusetts was a penatly, and not a tax.
"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," Fehrnstrom said.
When pressed by Chuck to clarify that Romney agrees with the President's take on the mandate - that it is not a tax - Fehrnstrom said yes.
"That's correct," Fehrnstrom said. "But the President also needs to be held accountable for his contradictory statements because he has described it variously as a penalty and as a tax, he needs to reconcile those two very different statements."
Check out more from today's interview above.
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MSNBC why can we have detailed explanations of congressional passed bills and supreme court decisions, provided by independent experts.
can't
It's entirely mystifying to me that the media leads an endlessly noisome echo chamber, trying to split hairs, to wit whether fees assessed under the ACA is a tax or a penalty. Now, I ask: If an individual is assessed a fee or surcharge for late- or non-payment of a bill or rent, should we call that a tax or penalty? If one overdraws on a bank account, and consequently accrues bank fees or overdraft charges, would these be fall into a category of tax or penalty? If we agree that what occurs in each instance is the assessment of a penalty, does that mean the person to whom the fees or surcharges apply committed an offense or felony (as some in the media imply)? Frankly, I don't see any logical inconsistency with Congress assessing a Penalty under the Commerce Law, through the Tax Code; just like a bank or other business entity charges fees, or applies penalty, for delinquent accounts using whatever authority that supports the action(s). Instead of splitting hairs over a nonissue, can we move on with more important issues - like solving the economic problems and the other more pressing problems the country faces now and in the immediate future. PLEASE!?
Romney lies, said he never thought his MA plan for Healthcare should be for the National level. He forgot in 2008:
Mitt Romney encouraged him publicly to use an individual mandate. In his op-ed, Governor Romney suggested that the federal government learn from Massachusetts how to make healthcare available for all. One of those things was “Using tax penalties, as we did, or tax credits, as others have proposed, encourages “free riders” to take responsibility for themselves rather than pass their medical costs on to others.”