Right Wing Incensed By So-Called Obama Christmas Tree Tax

David Addington at the Heritage Foundation is absolutely incensed that President Obama has implemented a “Christmas Tree tax”! It’s an outrage! Americans, Addington writes, are out of work and cannot afford the fifteen cents per tree “tax” being rammed down the throats of the American people!

Except, it’s not.

The so-called “tax” is not a tax at all, and further, it was requested in 2009 by the National Christmas Tree Association. But if course the the infamous Heritage Foundation, purveyors of finely-crafted mistruths and one-sided attacks against America, facts and truth rarely enter into an argument. Who needs facts when you’re a Republican, citizen of the land of make believe?

In, “Obama Couldn’t Wait: His New Christmas Tree Tax.” David Addington — former chief of staff, of course, to former Vice President Dick Cheney and  I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby Jr.’s replacement – writes, “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.”

“Mr. President, that’s a new 15-cent tax to pay for a Federal program to improve the image and marketing of Christmas trees,” Addington says, adding, “The economy is barely growing and nine percent of the American people have no jobs. Is a new tax on Christmas trees the best President Obama can do?”

Back in the land of reality, ABC News reports:

The fee, requested by the National Christmas Tree Association in 2009, was first announced in the Federal Registry yesterday and has generated criticism of President Obama from conservative media outlets.

The National Christmas Tree Association says the fee would fund a program “designed to benefit the industry and will be funded by the growers” and is “not expected to have any impact on the final price consumers pay for their Christmas tree.” According to the Federal Registry, the proposed Christmas Tree Promotion Board, which would be funded by the new fee, would launch 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” and to “enhance the image of Christmas trees and the Christmas tree industry in the United States.”
White House spokesman Matt Lehrich told ABC News that despite some media coverage, “I can tell you unequivocally that the Obama Administration is not taxing Christmas trees. What’s being talked about here is an industry group deciding to impose fees on itself to fund a promotional campaign, similar to how the dairy producers have created the ‘Got Milk?’ campaign.”

 

No matter. Of course, the Obama Administration has decided to hold off on the program. Mr. Addington can breathe the Balsam Fir air safely again.

Oh, yeah. Colin Powell is reported to say of David Addington, “He doesn’t care about the Constitution.”