It’s not a tax, it’s a fee

I recently read about Minnesota’s former governor Tim Pawlenty urging congress to shut down government over increasing the debt limit. That’s what he did in 2005, until he finally gave in and increased the tax on cigarettes. But Pawlenty prefers to call it not a tax but “a health impact fee.”

Maybe that’s our ticket out of debt. We need a few more health impact fees. Apparently that’s a palatable approach since tax increases aren’t.