Back in the early days of quantum theory, Sir William Bragg used to say that on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, physicists thought of the electron as a wave, and on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, as a particle.
The Obama Administration, and their Democrat counterparts here in the state, have adopted a similar theory of taxation. First, it was the state Democrats insisting that a fee wasn’t a tax, except when it was. Now, the Obama Administration, in response to Virginia’s lawsuit against Obamacare, has changed its tune about the penalty you will soon pay for not carrying health insurance.
Initially, they claimed it wasn’t a tax, in order to avoid rhetorically breaking the President’s promise not to raise taxes on anyone making less than $250,000 a year. Now, in response to the lawsuit, which claims that the government can’t impose a penalty for not engaging in commerce, and that the IRS can’t be used to collect penalties unrelated to taxation, the Administration has decided that it’s a tax, after all.
Which will create difficulties of its own. The Constitution limits the direct taxation authority of Congress pretty severely. While the 16th Amendment permits income taxes, this isn’t an income tax. And while it permits capitation taxes, those taxes have to be in proportion to a state’s population, which this also isn’t.
So we’re left with a situation where something is a tax on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, a fee on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, and a penalty on Sunday.
The resolution to the quantum paradox, most agree, is that the electron and other particles aren’t really particles or waves at all, but something else entirely that has features of each. I think it’s pretty clear what’s what in this case, but no doubt the Democrats will soon be arguing that it’s neither a penalty nor a fee nor a tax, but something else altogether.
The one common denominator to all these definitions is that it means more money for them, and less for you.