Fehrnstrom: Romney Does Not Believe The Mandate Is A Tax

CHUCK TODD, NBC NEWS: I think we're talking around each other. The governor does not believe the mandate is a tax, that's what you're saying? ERIN FEHRNSTROM, ROMNEY CAMPAIGN: The governor believes that what we put in place in Massachusetts was a penalty and he disagrees with the Court's ruling that the mandate was a tax. TODD: But he agrees with the president that it is not -- and he believes that you should not call the tax penalty a tax, you should call it a penalty or a fee or a fine? FEHRNSTROM: That's correct. But the president also needs to be held accountable for his hypocritical and contradictory statements because he's described it variously as a penalty and as a tax. So he needs to reconcile those two very different statements.