The prominent conservative columnist George Will argued Sunday that the health care reform law’s individual mandate is an egregious abuse of federal power. Soon after, he suggested the legal challenge would be moot if it were only called a “tax” as opposed to a “penalty.”
Will’s exchange on ABC’s This Week with George Stephanopoulos:
STEPHANOPOULOS: … interview I had with President Obama two years ago, where we had a big fight over whether or not this is a tax.
WILL: If they lose up there, he will have lost it on this program talking to you. If they — if they had simply said this is a tax, under the taxing power, we wouldn’t be having this argument.
STEPHANOPOULOS: But whether they say it or not, it is a tax. And that means — that undercuts the mandate argument.
WILL: It is collected — it is collected by the IRS, the penalty is, but the president sat on our set, talking to you, saying I categorically reject the idea that this is a tax.
