To the Journal editor:
Wikipedia defines "to tax" as "to impose a financial charge or other levy upon a taxpayer by a state or the financial equivalent of a state, such that failure to pay is punishable by law [..] a tax may be defined as a 'pecuniary burden laid upon individuals or property owners to support the government [...] a payment exacted by legislative authority.'
A tax is not a voluntary payment or donation, but an enforced contribution, exacted pursuant to legislative authority and is 'any contribution imposed by government . . .whether under the name of toll, tribute, tallage, fabel, impost, duty, custom, excise, subsidy, aid, supply, or other name"
If Obamacare is not a tax (the largest in our history), why is there a very detailed section on the IRS website (IRS.GOV) entitled Affordable Care Act Tax Provisions, which goes on to list all the 21 points of the Act that are taxes?
Every taxpayer should go to the website and become familiar with how the largest taxing authority in the country plans on enforcing this Tax Act.
If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck - what is it, a penalty? It's not rocket science people.