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Jim DeMint Explains Obama's Brand New Christmas Tree Tax
You really can't make this up
Crony Capitalism, Christmas Trees, and the Stupidest Tax of All Time
No, it’s not a joke. President Obama really is imposing a special new tax on Christmas trees.
And while the policy seems a ludicrous political misstep – and possibly an unconstitutional one at that – in truth, the Obama Christmas Tree Tax is much worse than that.
The $2 million the Obama Administration expects the tax to raise will not reduce the deficit or cover needed government services. Instead, it will serve as a marketing slush fund for the Christmas tree industry.
The money will set up a brand new government agency called (no, seriously) the Christmas Tree Promotion Board. The CTPB will use the $2 million to hire a staff – most likely the industry lobbyists who cooked up this scheme – and then run advertisements to “enhance the image of Christmas trees and the Christmas tree industry of the United States.”
Don’t the Christmas tree growers and retailers already do that? Yes. Isn’t marketing something that all companies should do with their profits, to grow their business and attract new customers? Yes.
And while we’re asking questions, does anyone in America – anyone? – believe that Christmas trees have a bad image that needs taxpayer-subsidized improvement?
So why should the government-funded Christmas Tree Promotion Board tax us to fund a marketing campaign? So the Christmas tree industry can pocket the $2 million they now won’t have to spend marketing their trees.
That’s it. That’s the whole purpose of the Obama Christmas Tree Tax: to take money from hard-working families celebrating Christmas and give it to clever lobbyists and businessmen running a crony-capitalist subsidy scam.
And while this policy will, by design, help one group of people, it will hurt others: businesses that sell artificial Christmas trees, people who work at your local stores that sell them, and, don’t forget, the consumers who are out 15 cents a tree.
Business groups using government connections to enrich themselves by hurting everyone else. Makes you just want to break into “O Holy Night,” doesn’t it?
Hopefully, the Crony Capitalists in the Obama Administration have gone too far this time, and public backlash will force Congress to shut down the Christmas Tree Promotion Board and repeal the single stupidest tax of all time. I will soon offer an amendment on the Senate floor to do just that.
All I want for Christmas is a free market.
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15 CENTS PER TREE?
And you wasted all that hot air complaining about 15 cents per tree?
Get A Life Durden.
See my comment below and explain why this 15 cents is not just a complete waste, but also illustrative of the capital wasting thinking of bureaucrats.
So job tenured bureaucrats think they can run a better xmas tree advertising campaign than a businessmen whose jobs depend on sales of xmas trees?
It is amazing to contemplate that such incompetent thinking exists. Obama and his people have no clue.
14:00 ECOMCON Bitchez
More Faux News from ZH...
It's not a tax, it's a fee paid by fresh tree growers to fund a marketing campaign to promote fresh trees (grown in the US and creating jobs) over fake trees made in China... funny how Tyler missed that part. There is a long history of this kind of thing... milk, eggs, poultry, etc have worked on a similar model... Oh yeah, and it comes off the wholesale price and does not affect the retail price at all... I repeat, it is not a tax!
OK kids... back to the latest bogus Obama cluster fuck... have fun!
It's just a 'fee', is it? But if you don't pay and Uncle Gorilla finds out you'll be locked in a cage, no doubt. Like any other tax.
Comes off the 'wholesale price and does not affect the retail price at all' - you've been here on ZH how long, and you still don't understand that such 'fees' have to be passed onto the consumer.
No, not April 1st, but close. April 15th, on a Groundhog Day repeating loop.
This PROVES jobs grow on trees
Wow.....
And the majority voted for this FuckTard.
Council on Foriegn Relations must of helped come up with this one.
Thats who runs the USSA ,Right...???
"The $2 million the Obama Administration expects the tax to raise will not reduce the deficit or cover needed government services. Instead, it will serve as a marketing slush fund for the Christmas tree industry."
You mean the switch from home grown american tree's to fake chinese ones? They took ur jerbs, they took ur firs!
So the loophole in this tax would be to just sell Evergreen trees in December, not Christmas trees?
So the loophole in this tax would be to just sell Evergreen trees in December, not Christmas trees?
Is there a tax on Solstice trees?
http://media.fukung.net/images/10222/9f56677c7dd9515bcb879e9e3414abec.jp...
My Christmas lights work just as well on my palms. Looks like I'll be swapping pina coladas for egg nog too.
O Palm tree, O Palm tree,
How sturdy God hath made thee!
This has to be one of the dumbest things I've ever heard of
He did ..... what????
OMFG
Why not let the government get involved in Xmas tree transactions?
The government already controls how large a dump you are allowed to take: http://mises.org/daily/3997
If the government has dominion over something private like the disposition of your faeces, why shouldn't it intervene in every other kind of private matter?
It's for the good of society, after all. Just think what would happen if you brought a black-market non-government tree into your house and it was infested with termites. I'm gladly willing to give up additional income to help pay for the government's roving band of thugs who will shoot and cage people for violating the yuletide tax.
Racist action. Unless he is prepared to start taxing menorahs and other icons from other religions then he is discriminating against Christianity from my POV. I suspect the courts of course will not see it that way since there has been an open and very deliberate war on Christianity for the past 25 years in this country.
Let's have a Boston Christmas Trea Party!
Dress up like Druids and dump the trees in the harbor!
These are not the druids you're looking for.
Anything put out by whack-a-doodle right wing nut job, Jim De Mint is suspect! He could only thrive in S. Carolina where the civil war is still fought. And you stupid people fell for it.
wow its a good thing i only buy a HOLIDAY TREE every year
The real money will be in the Christmas ornament tax.
"shut down the Christmas Tree Promotion Board and repeal the single stupidest tax of all time"
What makes it the "stupidest" tax?
Which is "stupider", stealing 15 cents every time an X-mas tree is sold? Or stealing 40% of someone's paycheck?
And which kind of robbery is wiser? One person mugging someone on the street, or 1 million people voting to have someone mugged?
Is there a wisest form of robbery?
If this is true it will one day be seen as the straw that broke the camels back. Its not that the US does not already have stupid taxes and govt meddling in the affairs of men it has no place in - its that this is a new one that is so spectacularly pointless as to represent the pinnacle of hopelessness in leadership. Anyone who thinks this is a good idea, starting with the lobbyists themselves, should immediately step forward for execution and elimination from the genepool. To allow such forms of life to breed hence marks the refutation of Darwinism and the end of humanity.
If this is true it will one day be seen as the straw that broke the camels back. Its not that the US does not already have stupid taxes and govt meddling in the affairs of men it has no place in - its that this is a new one that is so spectacularly pointless as to represent the pinnacle of hopelessness in leadership. Anyone who thinks this is a good idea, starting with the lobbyists themselves, should immediately step forward for execution and elimination from the genepool. To allow such forms of life to breed hence marks the refutation of Darwinism and the end of humanity.
Pretty soon, all phallic symbols will get taxed. Then what?
They will start assessing higher taxes on people that get better grades in school because stoopid people are disenfranchised by smart people who actually work hard and study.
You laugh now; Just watch!
Still another advantage of living in the woods, as I do - I usually find a very nice little tree within 100 yards of the house - some years my pickey daughter is along, and we need to range 200 yards to find the 'just right' small fir tree for our Christmas.
Your solution for this dumb stuff - don't buy a tree.
This sounds like manufactured media fodder for the pundits to use to divide the country into their usual left and right teams so the usual suspects can continue the plunder unabated.
Jim DeMint is an ASSHOLE. Always has been... always will be... South Carolina breeds them (assholes) big down there, have to make room for those big GAMECOCKS. This is bullshit. There is no tree tax - and it was never levied directly against consumers and did I say Jim DeMint is an asshole? I hope he and DeLay get along in their cell together.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/11/09/merry-christmas-agriculture-department-imposes-christmas-tree-tax/
Step 1- target untermensch with religion-specific tax.
And thus, Festivus was born...
The crypto-muslim's tax on idolatree.
Should have added a new pole-dance tax....D.C. would be in convulsions.....
Obammer changes his 'mind'.
Delayed- called off- who says we don't matter?
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2011/11/obama-administration-to-del...
All that's happening is predictable, as there are 7 stages that every
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everyone I know.
His free video
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Hope this info helps everyone as much as it has me.
Dr. Nancy
Well, I've bought my last Xmas tree. Fuck you Obama
Jim Demint is a fucking retard. But in this, Nerobama obviously is the fool. All the craziness that goes on around the talk of taxes, as people get upset just about equally about any tax (10 cents or 10 trillion), and he's risking the fire over this? Talk about foolish.
But so is Jim Demint, as this really is nothing. He should of taken the time he wasted on this 2 million dollar nothing (as wrong as it is) and read the Glass-Steagall act. It would of been far more productive, and give him the knowledge needed to fix some of our problems he laments about (but in his own know nothing retard-o way). Knowledge he is so sorely lacking, along with Obama, as both are complete idiot fucktards incapable of thinking anything constructive about our economy.
Glass-Steagall
Occupy Muir Woods!!!!
Appropriate Response:
Do not buy a christmas tree.
Take that, christmas tree lobbyists.
What else would you expect from your fuckin muslim president??????
It astonishes me how many people commented on this without even reading the dozens of comments explaining this is completely false: Its not a tax, its a fee the tree growers charge THEMSELVES at their request, THEY get the money to promote their industry, and the department of agriculture collects and manages the money so that the tree growers don't just arbitrarily scam all the sellers to rip them off for more money. It's also a program that's been around since the Bush era and has nothing to do with Obama. But why let facts get in the way of another irrational hate rant. You guys wouldn't want to actually learn something. Its much better if you just let Oceana or Amerasia yank your chain so you can run around in circles being angry about lies rather than focusing on real people and issues.
Really disappointing this has gone this far here. It brings in to question just how much of the other information here is fabricated garbage sold as insider gold.
So if all Christmas tree growers are doing this voluntarily, why do they need any government involvement?
The answer is, of course, it is not done voluntarily. Some of them may thing it a good thing, but it is imposed by the force of government on every grower whether they like it or not.
It is simply extortion, using the power of government to coerce compliance.
If the tree growers wanted to enter into a voluntary association to promote live (soon to die) christmas trees, then I'm all for it. But they didn't, some of them lobbied the government to tax all of them, willing or not. A Guy Fawkes avatar arguing for an increase in the size of government. Good grief.
This is a very illustrative point.
Question: How does the big bad gummit grow and encroach so much on our freedoms? Answer: Other citizens get together and DEMAND it.
1) Big xmas-tree wholesalers don't like competition and have seen revenues fall.
2) They propose a "marketing plan" for xmas trees to help fluff their revenues, and petition the gummit to make it a mandatory fee for ALL tree-sellers, no matter how big or how small.
3) Gummit puts out some bullshit questionaire and finds that, "Gee, lots of xmas-tree sellers support this idea, so let's help them make it a reality."
4) FREEDOM LOST!!!2!!! OH NOEZ!!
This is what makes the radical libertarian pissing and moaning so tiresome here. Ron Paul isn't going to prevent other people from trying to get government to do shit that impinges your freedom and pisses you off. Doesn't make a lick of difference who's in office, because the institutions that make these decisions don't have pass everything by the President.
Blah. Give it up. Government's obsolete.
No new Dreidel tax?
No new tax on Gelt?
No new tax on Kwanza trees?
No new tax on prayer rugs?