this is the cbs evening news with scott pelley. glor: good evening, everyone, i m jeff glor. scott is off tonight. it s the one idea that turned the supreme court decision on health care, this week it is the one idea that is front and center on the presidential campaign trail. whether the individual mandate the provision that requires every american to have health insurance amounts to a tax. on monday, mitt romney s senior advisors sided with president obama and against other republicans by calling it a penalty. today romney said not so. jan crawford sat down with the presumptive republican nominee in new hampshire where he s on vacation. reporter: romney has come under fire since the supreme court s decision because his position on this tax issue has been at odds with every republican that, of course, being in their saying that the health care law was in fact a massive tax hike. today in his first interview since the supreme court s decision, romney tried to clear th
tax at the federal level? that the supreme court has said it s a tax so it is a tax? i said i agreed with the dissent and the dissent made it very clear that they felt it was unconstitutional but the dissent lost, it s in the minority. so now the supreme court has spoken. there s no way around. that you can try and say you wish they had decided a different way, but they didn t. they concluded it was a tax, that s what it is and the american people know that president obama has broken the pledge he made. said he wouldn t raise taxes on middle income americans. not only did he raise the $500 billion that was already in the bill, it s now clear that his mandate as described by the supreme court is a tax. reporter: but does that mean that the mandate in the state of massachusetts under your health care law also is a tax? and that you raised taxes as governor? reporter: actually, the chief justice in his opinion made it very clear that at the state level states have the powe