A penalty you have to pay the government if you don't do what they want you to do isn't a tax?
As far as I'm concerned, Roberts nailed it. Of course its a tax. And that's how the political debate should have been framed since the beginning. Let people decide if its a tax they want to pay, and if not vote in a group that will disband it.
If so, bully for them.
But claiming it was anything other than a tax was always a lie. Just another example of the US system being run by the best liars that money can buy - spin doctors, accountants, and lawyers.
I don't think the spinmeisters are going to do very well with that argument. It might get swallowed by the useful idiots in the Democrat Party, but Independents and Republicans ain't buying it for a SECOND!