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.Where does the Constitution give the president unilateral authority to impose new taxes? It doesn't and I hope somebody challenges this nonsense.
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.
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.
Once again Obama has shown his love for more federal revenue and more bloated bureaucracy. Using this twisted logic what's to stop him from imposing these kinds of "fees" on every aspect of our daily lives?
We gotta get this guy out of there.
Of course, there is one way to beat this. I've had artificial Christmas trees since about 1991. Bought two of them in 20 years and they still look great. Saves me a ton of money and I don't have to worry burning my house down when they dry out.
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1 comment:
It's not a law, it's a rule.
It's not a tax, it's a fee.
When we have an “Acting Administrator of Agricultural Marketing” (how one gets that job I'd like to know) and a “Christmas Tree Promotion Board” (how one gets on that I'd like to know too), it's no wonder that the number public sector jobs have exploded over the last couple years.
From the Document No. AMS-FV-10-0008-FR
“The initial assessment rate will be $0.15 per Christmas tree
domestically produced or imported into the United States and
could be increased up to $0.20 per Christmas tree.”
Well heck, why not make it $100 per Christmas tree?
“A proposed rule regarding the referendum procedures was published in the Federal Register on November 8, 2010 (75 FR 68529). Copies of the rule were made available by USDA through the Office of the Federal Register and were also made available via the Internet at www.regulations.gov. That rule provided for a 60-day comment period. No comments were received.”
Every time I've gone to a government website, and I'm sure I'm not alone, it's be a pain in the neck to find stuff I KNOW is there. So now they're burying miscellaneous documents on their websites and saying we were warned.
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