Romney: the mandate is a tax.

Well at least we got that all sorted out.

From Politico:

“While I agreed with the dissent, that’s overtaken by the fact that the majority of the Court said it’s a tax and therefore it is a tax. They have spoken. There’s no way around that,” Romney said. “The American people know that President Obama has broken the pledge he made — said he wouldn’t raise taxes on middle-income Americans.”

CBS hasn't posted the full video of Romney's interview yet, so it's not clear if Romney addressed Fehrnstrom's comments, or whether his remarks on the mandate today mean he also raised taxes in Massachusetts. Republicans have urged Romney to campaign comprehensively against the law known as Obamacare, even if that means talking around his record as governor.

You know what this means? Romney is a flip flopper:

The Obama campaign responds in a statement hitting Romney as a flip-flopper: "[Romney] contradicted himself by saying his own Massachusetts mandate wasn't a tax — but, Romney has called the individual mandate he implemented in Massachusetts a tax many times before..."

All I can say is, good timing.

Update: The NYT is a little late on this, but there's a point every non-Fox News media personality keep forgetting:

Mr. Romney appeared to be making a finer point about the absolute role the Supreme Court plays in setting American law, even if the nuance was lost on many. “Well, the Supreme Court has the final word and their final word is that Obamacare is a tax. So it’s a tax,” he said.  

If SCOTUS rules that the sky is green, then as far as American law is concerned, the sky is green. It's a tax.