Is you is or is you ain't my banana?

Okay, let’s see if I have this right: the mandate that absolutely, positively no two ways about it was not a tax is in reality a tax whether it wants to be or not,  and Congress cannot fine me for not doing something but it can tax me for not doing anything. Have I got that right?  This is an interesting proposition, although John Roberts is not as entertaining as economist Alfred Kahn was during the Carter Administration, when he banned the word depression from his vocabulary and decided to call any severe economic downturn that might occur as the result of runaway inflation a banana.  Well, I see no reason why I can’t do this too; if it’s good enough for John Roberts and Alfred Kahn and Humpty-Dumpty as well, it’s good enough for me. So the government can’t rutabaga me for not eating broccoli, but I will have to pay a banana for not eating broccoli.  It makes scents in a feculently noisome sort of way, but only if you don’t think about it too much.