I thought it was an Onion story when I first heard about it.
But yes, apparently we have a Dire National Crisis in the Christmas tree industry that requires the federal government to step in with new taxation. And some people actually like the idea.
Big question: If “the industry” wanted this, why did it have to get the gummint to do it?
Merry Freaking Christmas. It’s enough (well, almost enough) to turn a body toward that abomination whose name I normally do not even utter: the Art*f*c**l Chr*stm*s Tr**.
(Tip o’ hat to S, whose email finally persuaded me that it wasn’t just The Onion.)
—–
UPDATE FROM S: The Obama administration has blinked. They’re postponing the tax until after Christmas. Yeah, like that’ll make it better. (Still, it would have been fun being a fly on the wall at the White House this morning as the waves of derision washed over.)
Nobody has yet managed to explain why, if an industry association wants to conduct an ad campaign, it doesn’t just raise its own money and do it.
My daughter begged and pleaded for an artificial WHITE tree last year. I was horrified, but she couldn’t be convinced to have anything else. So I guess I won’t have to pay that particular tax.
(I’m just so glad she didn’t beg for a pink tree! Or those bizarre Dr. Seuss trees I saw at Hobby Lobby!)
About all I can do is sputter. Then I regain control and shake my head. Nothing surprises me anymore.
WTF!
This year Christmas trees… next year American flags.
“My country,’ tis of thee, sweet land of subsidy”
This is a little less raw than some deals. If they really had pull they’d tax the fake trees and give themselves the money. Fake trees look better all the time and aren’t as expensive as they used to be. Still, I’ll bet that the big growers will have lots of idea how to publicize the pyrotechnic devices – oops! – real trees and get that pot of money.
Steve
Pat — Hm. Perhaps there would be a certain sort of poetic justice to taxing American flags …
Kent — Dr. Seuss Christmas trees? Oh, this I gotta see! If we’re going to be driven toward buying the dreaded ACT, it might as well be a cool and strange one.
But LibertyNews, I’m with you. It’s hard even to get indignant about things governmental, these days. The worst things you hear (and of course a Christmas tree tax doesn’t even rank in the top 1,000 of those) are just business as usual.
Steve … good song, logical thought. I wondered the same. Making your product more expensive in order to get more people to buy it does seem counterintuitive. Reading between the lines, in this case I believe it was very easy for Christmas tree growers to get the USDA to tax their fellows, while it would have taken a new law and some lobbying to get them to tax the A-trees.
“Pat — Hm. Perhaps there would be a certain sort of poetic justice to taxing American flags …”
Yeah, I think so too. But… how about Twinkies? 🙂
Kent — I don’t think I found the particular Dr. Seuss trees that so horrified you. But I did find these — a few of which actually make the idea of ACTs look good! (And a few others …)
http://www.neatorama.com/2007/12/03/worlds-most-unusual-christmas-trees/
I think Washington state already tried to tax Twinkies — and the voters rose up with a roar and stopped it. (Anyhow, they imposed a tax on candy and bottled water. Not sure it covered Twinkies; but it definitely didn’t work out so well.)
That said, though … Hm. I wonder if anybody has ever calculated what percentage of the price of Twinkies is attributable to federal taxes and regulation. It seems that’s a question for The Notorious Neverending Twinkie Thread.
https://thementalmilitia.com/forums/index.php?topic=2214.0
Those of us with a green thumb, try a potted rosemary christmas tree. With care, they can be used year after year, and the prunings can be used to cook with.
(Disclaimer: I have yet to get one to survive the whole summer. I found out recently that I’ve been watering them wrong, rosemary hates wet feet!)
Now that the Christmas tree tax is in place the eco freaks who hate all tree cutting will want to see the tax raised as high as possible. $100 a tree anyone?
“Nobody has yet managed to explain why, if an industry association wants to conduct an ad campaign, it doesn’t just raise its own money and do it.”
Careful what you wish for. I have friends who are bee keepers. They are forced by law to pay dues to the Honey Marketing Board as a condition of doing business. They have to pay a percentage of their income to the Board, and to be sure that they pay their fair share the Board has access to their books. The members of the board use this information for their own corrupt benefit by undercutting competitors for juicy contracts based on information obtained from audits. Industry Associations don’t always have the best interests of their industry at heart. Such a surprise,eh? 🙂
Woody. Yikes. Thanks for the insight. I’m not surprised to learn the situation is something like that (and I know that the National Christmas Tree Association is far from the first industry group to get a custom tax passed on its behalf). But your comment also goes right back to the core of the problem “…forced by law … as a condition of doing business.” Yeah. Start with that and it’ll always end up screwing somebody, won’t it?
My daughter is grown and moved on so my “Solstice Tree” (I’m not a christian, so…), is any small conifer in the nearby woods, decorated with popcorn strings and homemade ornaments of pinecones dipped in melted suet/PB and rolled in bird seed. Because I roll them one last time to seal everything in, they look like, and have been dubbed by me, as “Turds on a String”. Happy Holidays!
Claire- This isn’t “it”, but it’s as close to the Dr. Seuss trees as I have found so far.
Picture: brighter colors, no trunk, but the thin “tree” reaching all the way down, and more zig-zag.
Linky? I’d love to see those! (It looks like there’s a partial hyperlink code in your comment, but no URL.) But what a greatly weird idea!
Well, that didn’t work. Hmmm. I’ll try again.
Bulucanagria — I suspect the birds don’t care much what they look like. What a wonderful thing to do.
Maybe it will work now.
They must not like to have people link to their pages…
http://www.christmaslightsetc.com/p/4'-Fantasy-Collection-Red-Tree-Specialty-and-Aluminum-Christmas-Trees–20001–82.htm
Third time’s the charm, Kent. Pity if they don’t like being linked to!
Those trees are wonderfully weird and the weirdness is definitely making me consider ACTs for the first time in my life.
Fortunately, I have a lovely tree farm (all noble firs) about three miles from here that’s small enough that I’m pretty sure it doesn’t belong to the Big Tax Association or sell enough trees to have to pay the tax. So unless I find something too weird to resist, I’ll go there.
BTW, I emailed the National Christmas Tree Association to ask their justification for setting up a special tax and a bureaucracy to fulfill their marketing wishes. I’ll post if I hear anything — at least if I hear anything that isn’t pure PR blather. I expect their PR department is scrambling through some damage control today.
BTW, to my surprise the National Christmas Tree Association PR guy did respond (which is amazing, given what a hellish day this must be for those folks). He sent a .pdf describing the program and cc’d one of the tree growers who petitioned the USDA for the tax — which he insists is not a tax but a “checkoff.”
I’m aware of the term “checkoff” used for programs like this, and I know that things like the “Got Milk” and “Pork: The Other White Meat” campaigns are funded by “checkoffs.” But I still haven’t figured out how a checkoff functionally differs from a tax. If it does.
I’ve sent three questions back to the association and the cc’d grower, and will probably have more to say if either of them respond.
If it increases the price customers pay, and the extra goes to government, it is a “tax”.
This is only slightly dumber than the (in)famous Riverton, Wyoming, 1400% beer tax increase. http://wyliberty.org/highlight2/rivertons-beer-tax/