Romney camp changes tactics on healthcare Mitt Romney's presidential campaign strayed from the mainstream Republican message when a senior adviser said he agreed with the Obama administration's assertion that a fee at the centre of the healthcare law was a "penalty," not a tax. The comment, made by Eric Fehrnstrom, signalled an important tactical decision by the Romney camp that it would not use a recent ruling in favour of the Affordable Care Act as a bludgeon against President Barack Obama. But it could also point to a strategic break between Mr Romney and other Republican leaders in Washington. "The governor [Mr Romney] disagreed with the ruling of the court," Mr Fehrnstrom told Chuck Todd on MSNBC television. He agreed with the dissent that was written by Justice [Antonin] Scalia, which very clearly stated that the mandate was not a tax. In the Supreme Court's ruling last week, Chief Justice John Roberts ruled in a majority decision that the individual mandate at the heart of the act, which forces all Americans to buy insurance, was constitutional because the fee it imposed on those not buying insurance was a tax. Although the ruling on the act was a blow to Republicans, they revelled in the fact that Mr Roberts had handed them a new attack line against Mr Obama - namely, that his healthcare law was a tax rise on the middle classes. However, there is one significant problem with that message: the same financial penalty - or tax - lay at the heart of the healthcare reform passed by Mr Romney in Massachusetts. Mitch McConnell, the most senior Republican in the Senate, said on Fox television on Sunday: "The tax is going to be levied, 77 per cent of it will be levied on Americans making less than $120,000 a year. So it's a middle-class tax increase. But when asked what the difference was between the national tax by Mr Obama and the one issued by the Republican nominee, Mr McConnell was stumped. "I think Governor Romney will have to speak for himself about what was done in Massachusetts," he said. Mr Fehrnstrom's remarks seemed to send a signal that the Republican campaign was not going to engage in this specific line of attack. By saying he believed the fee was a "penalty," he essentially sided with Nancy Pelosi, the top Democrat in the House of Representatives, and Jack Lew, Mr Obama's chief of staff, who continue to argue the same point, even though the Supreme Court ruled otherwise. The decision by the Romney campaign underscores how tricky the national debate over healthcare reform continues to be for the Republican candidate, given his involvement in the passage of a similar overhaul of the healthcare system when he was governor of Massachusetts. Indeed, Democrats have adopted the former governor's defence of his law when by saying the ACA seeks to punish "free riders" who do not buy insurance and indirectly raises premiums of people who do.