SPIN METER: When ‘tax’ is a 4-letter word

The whatever-it-is starts in 2014, will be collected by the Internal Revenue Service and functions like a tax in that its amount is keyed to the income of those who must pay it.

The Obama administration always shied away from calling it a tax for the obvious reason that tax increases are political trouble. But, paradoxically, his health care law only stands today because the high court considered the insurance mandate part of Congress’ broad powers of taxation, therefore constitutional.

The court carefully parsed all of this in a migraine-inducing summary of Chief Justice John Roberts’ written decision.

“The Affordable Care Act describes the `shared responsibility payment’ as a `penalty,’ not a `tax,’” it says. “That label is fatal to the application of the Anti-Injunction Act. It does not, however, control whether an exaction is within Congress’ power to tax. In answering that constitutional question, this Court follows a functional approach, `disregarding the designation of the exaction, and viewing its substance and application.’”

In other words, the Thing is a tax.

Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.