Same story here: if it's not a tax then it's not constitutional. They get to choose one or the other, not both. Their feet need to be held to the fire here.
It's a fine measure of how far we've come from reality that these clowns can argue logically contradictory propositions and the MSM just smile and nod sagely.
Reminds me of the "Black Kettle" defense.
A man borrowed a friend's black kettle. When he brought it back, it was broken. When the owner asked the borrower to pay to fix it, the borrower says, "The kettle was broken when I borrowed it, and it's not broken anyway."