Romney contradicts campaign’s stance; says Obamacare a tax

By Katrina Jones Jul 5th, 2012 ( 2 Comments )

Washington: US Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney termed President Barack Obama’s healthcare law a tax rather than a penalty, contradicting his campaign’s stance.

A Romney campaign aide said on Monday that the former Massachusetts governor viewed it as a penalty, a politically sensitive distinction among voters opposed to higher taxes. In reversing course, Romney cited the Supreme Court decision last week, Reuters reported.

“Well, the Supreme Court has the final word and their final word is that Obamacare is a tax,” Romney said in a CBS television interview. “So it’s a tax. They decided it was constitutional. So it is a tax and it’s constitutional.”

Obama’s campaign accused Romney of contradicting both his staff and himself.

Danny Kaner, an Obama campaign spokesman, accused Romney of contradicting both his own campaign and himself.

“Romney has called the individual mandate he implemented in Massachusetts a tax many times before,” he said, supplying a list of quotations going back to 2006.

Romney’s remarks on healthcare put him more squarely in line with Republican conservatives who have long feared that he is not truly one of their own.