Are you sitting down? You need to be sitting down for this one from The Foundry:
PresidentObama’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.
What? You wanna run that one by me again there, Sport?
PresidentObama’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.
To support a new Federal program to improve the image and marketing of Christmas trees. Get the fugg-outta-here! Christmas trees have been getting along just fine for 234 years, and now all of a sudden the government needs to meddle in the image and marketing of Christmas tree’s?
This asshole Obama just invents new and meaningless programs for the sole purpose of inventing new taxes and more government meddling in your life. That prick needs to be sent home next year. What an asshole.
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)). And the program of “information” is to include efforts to “enhance the image of Christmas trees and the Christmas tree industry in the United States” (7 CFR 1214.10).
To pay for the new Federal Christmas tree image improvement and marketing program, the Department of Agriculture imposed a 15-cent fee on all sales of fresh Christmas trees by sellers of more than 500 trees per year (7 CFR 1214.52). And, of course, the Christmas tree sellers are free to pass along the 15-cent Federal fee to consumers who buy their Christmas trees.
Whatever happened to congress? I thought they were the one’s responsible for revenue, not the worthless bureaucrats. Nevermind, congress is irrelevant because the goddam Republicans don’t have the balls to stand up to this tyranny. They’re just like the Democrats, more concerned with reelection than doing what’s right. I’m really not feeling too positive about this country’s future, I can tell you that much.
Acting Administrator Shipman had the temerity to say the 15-cent mandatory Christmas tree fee “is not a tax nor does it yield revenue for the Federal government” (76 CFR 69102). The Federal government mandates that the Christmas tree sellers pay the 15-cents per tree, whether they want to or not. The Federal government directs that the revenue generated by the 15-cent fee goes to the Board appointed by the Secretary of Agriculture to carry out the Christmas tree program established by the Secretary of Agriculture. Mr. President, that’s a new 15-cent tax to pay for a Federal program to improve the image and marketing of Christmas trees.
