Obama postpones ‘fee’ on Christmas trees

If Christmas tree growers can’t manage to agree together on a marketing plan to promote sales, they shouldn’t be asking the Federal government to step in.

Yet, that’s what they did.  Somehow, the Obama administration was going to enforce a 15 cent tax on real Christmas trees.  Once news got out, however, they relented. Strange — isn’t Congress supposed to vote on levying taxes?  Or is this not a tax but a ‘fee’?  How do the two differ?  It doesn’t take a lot to imagine someone saying, ‘Essentially, it’s a tax.  But just call it a “fee”.  The American public are too stupid to think that one through.’

ABC News and Weasel Zippers carried the news about the backtrack on the fee.  The Heritage Foundation, however, provided information on how this came into being.  Excerpts from ‘Obama’s Christmas Tree Tax’ follow (emphases mine):

Heritage Vice President David Addington broke the story Tuesday night on Foundry.org, writing that in the Federal Register of November 8, it was announced that the Secretary of Agriculture will appoint a Christmas Tree Promotion Board to run a “program of promotion, research, evaluation, and information designed to strengthen the Christmas tree industry’s position in the marketplace.” Among its goals: “to enhance the image of Christmas trees and the Christmas tree industry in the United States.” Yes, you read that correctly. The Obama Administration wanted the federal government to handle public relations for Christmas trees …

After the article was posted on Foundry.org, the story was picked up by the Drudge Report, more than a million people read it, and a firestorm erupted–including reaction from left-wing websites coming out in knee-jerk defense of the Obama Administration. One writer argued that the 15-cent fee is “far from a tax” while also trumpeting the positive benefits of the federal government “partnering” with industry for marketing and research.

What they didn’t mention, though, is that it’s a partnership that many in the Christmas tree industry simply don’t want. As reported in the Federal Register, the industry “tried three different times to conduct promotional programs based on voluntary contributions. Each time, after about three years, the revenue declined to a point where the programs were ineffective.” In other words, many Christmas tree sellers decided they no longer wanted to participate in the programs.

So what did the industry do? It sought a mandatory tax, imposed by the federal government, to force compliance among individual sellers who otherwise didn’t want to participate. And the Obama Administration was happy to oblige …

The good news is that this Christmas story has a happy ending, at least for now. Not 24 hours after Heritage posted its report, the Obama Administration decided to delay its Christmas tree tax while the Department of Agriculture reconsiders its order …

Thank you, Heritage Foundation.

What’s so annoying is that, yet again, a group of people thinks that a government solution will solve a problem.  And never mind that others in that industry do not wish to participate.  No, in a collective society — which the Left believes the US has — everyone must go along and everyone must pay.  There will be no free choice.

Many on the Left say, ‘So what? It’s only 15 cents.’ But who will be administering this programme — collecting the fees from the tree sellers, doing the accounting, devising marketing plans, etc.? And how quickly does 15 cents become a dollar?

This ‘fee’ — tax — is a bad idea, compounded by the fact that it was approved unconstitutionally.  For this Christmas, Americans buying fresh trees won’t have to pay it.  We’ll wait and see what happens next year.

And how many more ‘fees’ are in the pipeline?