Taxing people on what they don’t consume creates a dangerous precedent

Talk about confusion.

First U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John G. Roberts decides that the Obamacare mandate is really a tax. Then the Republicans admonished the Democrats for raising taxes, followed by Democrats’ insistence — to avoid the tax-and-spend epithet — that the health mandate payment is a penalty. Then, of all people, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney sides with the Democrats, since his own Massachusetts plan had a similar levy on the uninsured population. Next, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, a VP contender, claims the mandate is both a tax and a penalty...