Desperate hair splitting. Call it a tax if you want. Call it a fee if you prefer. The government can and does require people to buy things — a military, a State Dept, a White House staff. There are thousands of examples of the government requiring you to “buy” things. What name you attach to the path the money follows from your hand to the government is silly word play. I lived in Minnesota during the dark days of Tim Pawlenty’s rule. He promised to cut taxes — and he did. He converted them to “fees.” The difference? Nada.