Romney: Obama health law 'a tax'

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4 July 2012 Last updated at 16:10 ET Help

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has said a key part of the landmark healthcare reform law passed by President Barack Obama in 2010 does amount to a tax.

His comments, in an interview with CBS News, come days after one of Mr Romney's senior campaign advisers, Eric Fehrnstrom, said the former governor of Massachusetts saw the law's "individual mandate" as a penalty or fine - but not a tax.

That comment put Mr Romney's team at odds with the line of attack coming from the national Republican party in the days after the Supreme Court decision.

"The majority of the court said it's a tax and therefore it is a tax. They have spoken. There's no way around that," Mr Romney said.

In defining the measure as a tax Mr Obama also broke a promise not to raise taxes on middle class families, Mr Romney added.

Mr Romney was interviewed in the state of New Hampshire, where he is spending the week mostly on holiday with this family.

Meanwhile, Mr Obama is scheduled to embark on a two-day bus tour through the states of Ohio and Pennsylvania starting on Thursday. It will be the first such trip of his re-election campaign.