Only government could come up with this ingenious plan: President Obama’s Agriculture Department has announced that it will impose a new 15-cent charge on all fresh Christmas trees to support a new Federal program to improve the image and marketing of... Christmas trees.
Yes, that's right, if you buy a Christmas tree you are apparently still unconvinced how awesome they are so the government must tax you, waste half just by being government, then spend the other half wastefully marketing Christmas trees to everyone.
But more taxes during a recession are bad, right? I mean, unless they are for those people making $200K a year and their private jets and stuff? This isn't a tax, they say, if you listen to the same Jedi-mind-trick logic that they used to say the stimulus plan of 2009 was not wasted because it 'saved' jobs. Acting Administrator of Agricultural Marketing David R. Shipman says the 15-cent mandatory Christmas tree fee “is not a tax nor does it yield revenue for the Federal government”.
So Christmas tree sellers have a choice? No, nor do they have a choice about what is done with the money they are forced to pay, namely marketing Christmas trees. It won't be gross incompetence that causes Pres. Obama to lose to one of the circle of goofballs current lobbying to be the Republican candidate, it will be the audacity with which his administration goes about being incompetent that will shock his side into staying home and helping the other side win
