"tax" or "penalty"?

[Jonathan Lighter]

Every commentator I've seen on TV (and I watch a hell of a lot),  whether
right or left, pol or journo, expert or otherwise, is passionately hung up
on the question of whether the inidividual mandate is a "tax" or a
"penalty."

What's remarkable is that *nobody* has been able to utter the simple truth
that "It's like a penalty in some ways and like a tax in others."

Is this a political, a journalistic, a semantic, or a brain problem? Or all
of the above?

OK, don't answer that.  But the point is, in media journalism, don't
address the issue if you can address the label instead.

JL

--
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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