What is a "Tax penalty"?

So is the mandate a tax or a penalty? The gov't can't seem to get it quite straight. I feel sorry for the Solicitor General, throwing himself on his sword for Obama. I guess getting laughed out of the Supreme Court is still some kind of honor.

Supreme Court considers: Did health care law challenge come too soon? | The Ticket - Yahoo! News

I thought a tax penalty was something you paid if you hadn't paid enough tax. I guess Obama has a different meaning fo the word is too.

 

Taxes, itself, can be considered a penalty.

So are fees. But tax penalty sounds like a superfluous phrase. Why not just tax or Penalty?


OH wait--I see now.

Leftist propaganda!

 

This thing is going down like the fucking Titanic.

 

They have to use the term tax penalty because the government cannot fine people for doing nothing but they can tax people whenever and for whatever they want

 

its all going to be a penalty tax... becasue only some of us will get screwed and have to pay up.