Getting a Christmas tree? Get ready to pay a USDA tax on any fresh cut tree you decide to buy. The Obama federal government created a national marketing program to advertise the virtues of real Christmas trees. And this Christmas tree tax is what will pay for that marketing program.
|
| Getting a Christmas tree? There’s a tax for that |
|---|
The Christmas tree industry requested this initiative to fund Christmas tree research and marketing, the program will be funded solely by the industry, and the government is not imposing any tax on Christmas trees,” an Agriculture Department spokesman explains.
It’s a distinction without a difference. If a fee is imposed on a product by a government, it’s a tax on the consumer.
Regulators also defend the new program by noting that other products, including pork (The Other White Meat), beef (It’s What’s For Dinner), and milk (Got Milk?) have advertising campaigns funded by the feds. Well, that simply means consumers have been paying more than we needed to for those products as well.
This new tax that’s not a tax was imposed as part of the 2014 Farm Bill. It was first announced in November of 2011, but was put on hold after an Internet firestorm erupted in opposition to it.
A Christmas tree tax in America. Welcome to Obamaville.