At a time when one might think the federal government had better things to do than further meddle is a sour economy, we’ve got bureaucrats imposing a new tax to promote Christmas trees:
President Obama’s Agriculture Department today announced that it will impose a new 15-cent charge on all fresh Christmas trees — the Christmas Tree Tax — to support a new Federal program to improve the image and marketing of Christmas trees.
In the Federal Register of November 8, 2011, Acting Administrator of Agricultural Marketing David R. Shipman announced that the Secretary of Agriculture will appoint a Christmas Tree Promotion Board. The purpose of the Board is to run a “program of promotion, research, evaluation, and information designed to strengthen the Christmas tree industry’s position in the marketplace; maintain and expend existing markets for Christmas trees; and to carry out programs, plans, and projects designed to provide maximum benefits to the Christmas tree industry” (7 CFR 1214.46(n)).
Although not a Christian, I welcome those, including the Governor of Wisconsin who wish to dub a festive pine tree decorated during the days preceding and immediately followed the Winter Solstice as a Christmas Tree. The First Amendment protects those individuals’ free exercise of religion.
It is, however, none of the federal government’s business to promote this holiday symbol. To be sure, it should protect the rights of those individuals who wish to display it. (And the ACLU who should be opposing this silly measure has yet to get injunctions against private homeowners who proudly decorate their trees.) It’s not just the tax that’s the issue. It’s the waste of federal resources.
And it does seem that whenever governments starts “promoting” an industry, federal officials soon start meddling. Ed Driscoll wonders if “the administration be raiding Christmas tree dealers, a la their raids on an other famous wood-based merchant?”
Doug Powers quips that if “real tree sales don’t pick up as a result of this initiative, look for a ‘cash for artificial tree clunkers’ program to be introduced by next Christmas to get the faux alternatives off the streets.”
Meanwhile, yours truly sees this as just another sign that it’s long past time to scale back the federal government. Significantly.
If these bureaucrats have nothing better to do than to cook up programs to promote an industry which seems to be doing quite well, then what are they doing drawing salaries from a federal treasury deep in the red?
UPDATE: Ed Morrissey doesn’t mince words when mocking this plan:
Government doesn’t belong in the advertising business for any private-sector product, and the last thing we need right now is another bureaucracy spending tax dollars.
Read the whole thing!
Fox News has a history of reporting on the liberal attack on Christmas. Not sure how they’re going to spin this.
This IS an attack on Christmas and it is a clever way to make the masses of Christians pay for programs to allegedly promote Christmas trees. Since when has the government applied tax money the way they say they will? With all the tax money on tobacco there shouldn’t be a single smoker nor should there be any outstanding healthcare bills. This is a “screw you” tax like the “tanning bed” tax. Who did that affect? I initially joked that it might be the most racist thing I’d ever seen until I studied the entire body of work of this Administration. Then I realized it WAS a tax that targeted white people. The DOJ does everything in its power to do the same thing. Only white defendents will be prosecuted for voting violations? It sues states trying to deal with an onslaught of illegal Mexicans while it sues states that want to initiate voter registration so only valid citizens can vote? They crap on Israel, England, and our other friends in the world while they insist on bending over for tyrants and dictators. Wait till Obama gets a second term where he doesn’t have to worry about re-election. We’ll be a banana Republic and our citizenry will be reduced to begging for entitlements from our supreme leaders in exchange for our votes.
Friend told me he posted this on FB. I thought he was making a joke.
And yeah, it’s a way to bilk more money from Christians, and a way to please the environmentalists (note that faux Christmas trees are not taxed.)
Why the Ag Dept suddenly wants to start promoting Christmas trees was my second question when I read this. My first question was, When was the Constitution amended to allow the Executive branch to impose a tax?
Obama is the GRinch who stole Christmas; this makes it clear. Obama wants the government to be Santa Claus–not the parents; he also wants to replace God. He’s a typical dictator with delusions of grandeur. He’s already cracking up. This is a manifestation of his meltdown.
Sounds like a religious tax to me. And should be unconstitutional as it charges the tax on one particular religion. I am just as against levying a tax on hijabs or mennorahs or even Gaia supplies. I am suspicious this a back door way to ban ‘holiday trees’ from the public square. Taxed Enough Already!
Grinch Owebama?
I’m a gay conservative living in Dayton Ohio and I couldn’t agree more with this. I’m also a Christian and that might not make a lot of sense but I believe God is merciful and the Bible is his word despite how some Christians twist it to blatantly express their hatred on gays. On the topic of this article you wrote it must be understood moreover that Christmas is not a Christian holiday but absorbed by the pagan Christian church known as Roman Catholicism so it could pander to both pagans and Christians who were gaining favor in that time.
I can’t see why Christmas Trees need to be promoted, but if they do, It sounds to me like a job for the National Christmas Tree Association. Can anyone explain to me why a bunch of government appointees can do the job better than an industry association? The only reason to do this is to create another board to appoint friends of Barrack Obama to.
Why is the federal government involved in almost all aspects of your lives? Are these liberals such controlling people that they deem it necessary to tax Christmas trees?
Bloody-minded bureaucracy for the sake of being seen to do something. The Halloween stuff wasn’t even off the shelves at my local WalMart before the first Christmas stuff went in, and the timing seems almost obscenely convenient.
There’s another aspect to this, you know – let’s say that there are 300 million people in the US, and let’s argue for argument’s sake that all of them are in four-person households and all those households will buy a fresh tree. That’s 75 million trees at fifteen cents a tree, or just under $11 million. Let’s call that the outside figure, the most that might be raised. Now ask yourself, how much is the bureaucracy going to cost when you figure in wages, printing of stationery, buying/leasing and then setting up office space, buying the computers and wiring up the phones, advertising, screening, hiring…
I think you get the idea.
In the spirit of waffling on what the meaning of “is” is, I question whether a cut tree is a “live” tree. Can you poke it back in the ground and get it to take off running again?
And. if you buy a tree with a root ball and nurse it through “festivus” and then plant it, shouldn’t you be allowed to wait until it survives the shock and begins growing before you have to pay the tax? And shouldn’t the government waive the tax if the tree helps in some way to protect a snail darter or owl or a rare fungus?