 Obama Couldn't Wait: His 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 Agriculture will appoint a Christmas Tree Promotion Board. The 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 to carry out programs, plans, and projects designed to provide maximum benefits to the Christmas tree industry” (7 CFR 1214.46(n)). The promotions, according to the Agriculture Department, will present “a favorable image of Christmas trees to the general public,” with the intent of improving the public “perception” of Christmas trees and, hence, their sales. To pay for the new Federal Christmas tree image improvement and marketing program, 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). By Doug Powers • November 8, 2011 10:59 PM 
 
 **Written by Doug Powers 
 
 When I read that the federal government was getting involved in the Christmas tree industry, I couldn’t believe the first order of business wasn’t to remove the word “Christmas” from the name. Does this mean a couple months of President Obama going around the country saying “pass this Christmas tree jobs fee”? UPDATE: The Obama Administration has announced that they will be delaying implementation of this new program.
– In a move that both Santa and Scrooge would probably have an opinion about, the US Agriculture Department yesterday OKed a Christmas tree "tax." The 15-cent fee (which the USDA is calling a charge, not a tax) will be imposed on American growers and importers, and is expected to raise $2 million annually—which will then be used to fund an ad campaign pushing real, live trees over marketshare-grabbing fake ones. Sales of freshly cut trees have sunk from 37 million in 1991 to 31 million in 2007; in that year, 17.4 million artificial trees were sold. But some of the country's 12,000 tree farms aren't pleased with the Christmas Tree Promotion, Research, and Information Order: McClatchy/Tribune News notes that Texas and Vermont growers were opposed. Some of the country's citizens (and media outlets) aren't too pleased either, reports Gawker, which notes that the Drudge Report's top story is OBAMA'S NEW 'CHRISTMAS TREE TAX.' At MichelleMalkin.com, Doug Powers predicts that the charge will be passed on to consumers and quips, "Look for a 'cash for artificial tree clunkers' program to be introduced by next Christmas to get the faux alternatives off the streets." David Addington at the Heritage blog is particularly incensed: "The economy is barely growing and 9% of the American people have no jobs. Is a new tax on Christmas trees the best President Obama can do?" Gawker notes that the tax was first discussed at the USDA at the end of George W Bush's second term.