WOLFEBORO, N.H. -- Mitt Romney says the Supreme Court has decided that President Barack Obama's health care mandate is a tax, but he maintains that the high court has made clear it does not consider a Massachusetts health care mandate a tax.

The Republican presidential candidate told CBS News on Wednesday that the Supreme Court opinion makes clear that states have the power to put in place a mandate or a penalty and that it is constitutional.

The former Massachusetts governor said that the court's opinion said states have the power to pass such a penalty, but the federal government does not. And he said for the court to find Obama's plan constitutional they had to rule his mandate was a tax.