SCOTUS decision puts Romney at odds with congressional GOP

Chief Justice John Roberts’ surprise decision to side with the liberal majority to uphold the individual mandate on taxing power grounds — an argument that even liberal lower-court judges had rejected — has scrambled both parties’ health care strategies.

The decision has put Democrats in a rhetorical bind. If they insist that the requirement to purchase health insurance isn’t a tax, then they implicitly admit it’s unconstitutional. If they acknowledge that it is a tax, then they admit that Obama raised taxes on the middle class, in direct violation of his campaign promise.