Last year, President Obama argued with television host George Stephanopoulos that forcing Americans to buy health insurance wasn't a tax. Stephanopoulos brought out the dictionary to show the President the correct definition of the word tax, and the President still insisted his mandated health care wasn't a tax. Now he's changed his mind, as he's done on any number of issues. From the New York Times:
When Congress required most Americans to obtain health insurance or pay a penalty, Democrats denied that they were creating a new tax. But in court, the Obama administration and its allies now defend the requirement as an exercise of the government’s “power to lay and collect taxes.”