David S. Addington: Obama's New Christmas Tree Tax!!

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 Agricultural Marketing will appoint a Christmas Tree Promotion Board. The alleged 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 carry out programs, plans, and projects designed to provide maximum benefits to the Christmas tree industry." The so-called "program of information" is to include efforts to "enhance the image of Christmas trees and the Christmas tree industry in the United States." To pay for this idiotic program, the Christmas tree sellers are free to pass along the 15 cent Federal fee to consumers who buy 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." Perhaps the money will be used to kill innocent civilians with our CIA drones in Afghanistan!