NEW YORK TIMES: Mitt Romney declared on Wednesday that President Obama’s health care mandate was in fact a tax, shifting his campaign’s characterization of the law and aligning himself with the conservative voices in his party.
Rather than clarify his position, Mr. Romney’s remarks, made in an interview with CBS News on a national holiday, only renewed criticisms that he was willing to shift his views for political expediency. And they appeared to directly contradict his chief spokesman, who said just two days earlier, “The mandate was not a tax.”
Mr. Romney’s declaration suggested that the campaign was willing to take the short-term risk of being accused of inconsistency so that in the long term it could fall into line with the dominant Republican Party message on health care: that President Obama was imposing a tax through his insurance mandate. But the position carries substantial political risks for Mr. Romney, who as governor of Massachusetts signed into law a similar insurance mandate, one that the Obama administration used as a model… (more)
