Posted on 11/15/2014 5:42:24 PM PST by PROCON
This year, your real Christmas tree will be more expensive than it needs to be. That’s because the Department of Agriculture is imposing a fee on each fresh-cut tree sold.
A few months ago, the federal government created a national marketing program to advertise the virtues of real Christmas trees. It’s funded by a 15-cent surcharge that will be added to the cost of each tree sold. It’s not a tax, Washington insists -- merely a fee that you have to pay.
“The Christmas tree industry requested this initiative to fund Christmas tree research and marketing, the program will be funded solely by the industry, and the government is not imposing any tax on Christmas trees,” an Agriculture Department spokesman explains.
It’s a distinction without a difference. If a fee is imposed on a product by a government, it’s a tax on the consumer.
(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...
Probably wondering why they all turn brown and drop needles.
The conclusion will be that we should decorate them in the woods and not cut them down.
But Republicans are pro business, and isn’t this what business wanted?
Is there one small aspect of our lives remaining that this feral government has not intruded?
I can’t get terribly excited over a 15 cent marketing fee on Christmas trees that can cost $50 or more.
I toss mine into the backyard after Christmas. It's usually covered in snow within a few days. Once it reappears in the spring (and it's warm enough to venture outside) I cut all the branches off. Then I use a branch or two every time I light the fire pit. They work as well as lighter fluid/
LOL, a new gubmint policy coming soon...
The overhead of administering this is more, and this is just intrusive by principle.
We need a Christmas Trea Party.
Oh, sure, easy for you to say, you rich Republican 2 per center!
What about the poor children...
Don't worry. There's a gubmint pogrom to buy them underprivileged chillens a tree...
Slip onto government land and cut your own!
FR: Never Accept the Premise of Your Opponent’s Argument
This the second thread that I’ve noticed since the elections with a refence to a tax seemingly proposed by non-elected federal bureaucrats. Here’s the first thread that I saw.
FR: FCC Plans Stealth Internet Tax Increase
The disturbing thing about these threads is the following. The Founding States had made the Constitution’s Clause 1 of Section 7 of Article I to clarify that the House of Representatives uniquely has the power to initiate bills which appropriate revenues. So since RINOs have had majority control of the House for the last four years, did thieving incumbent RINOs not only make sure that these proposed taxes weren’t announced until after the recent elections, but are these RINOs also hiding behind non-elected federal bureaucrats to give voters the impression that voters cannot do anything about such taxes?
Also, regarding the proposed tax on Christmas trees, regardless what FDR’s activist justices wanted everybody to think about the scope of Congress’s Commerce Clause powers when it wrongly decided Wickard v. Filburn in Congress’s favor in 1942, note that Constitution-respecting justices had previously clarified that the states have never delegated to Congress, expressly via the Constitution, the specific power to regulate intrastate commerce.
”State inspection laws, health laws, and laws for regulating the internal commerce of a State, and those which respect turnpike roads, ferries, &c. are not within the power granted to Congress [emphases added].” —Gibbons v. Ogden, 1824.
So citizens shouldn’t be seeing a federally “inspired” Christmas tree tax at their intrastate tree farms imo.
Fees, fines, taxes, they are all the same:
A fine is a tax for doing wrong. A tax is a fine for doing well.
OK genius. You ever hear the expression, "Mighty trees from tiny acorns grow?"
Hasn't been a tax or fee in U.S. history that hasn't had everlasting life under the same law of nature.
Well considering most of the winter is ‘no burn days’ here......yeah.
****************************
sheana... It really would be nice to see you and other FReepers stop saying “here”, instead of just saying where “here” is or at least including the location on the about page.
...Where does the law prevent people from generating heat in the cold weather by using their fireplaces or wood stoves?
So why don't we find out and see to it that the "Stupid American Voter" actually has the opportunity to become a little less stupid, and perhaps proactively actually militant?
It's still only industry, but no one cares to study the law and call them on their abuse of it.
Exactly like the Roberts decision.
I wonder if this is also a means to kill small Christmas tree growers. Only the huge corporate farms are likely to collect and pay the tax. Will small growers be prosecuted for tax evasion if they don’t comply? Seems possible. I’m not sure what’s going on here, but forgive me if I’m highly skeptical of ANY business or industry that asks to pay more taxes.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to [tax our people], harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
[mine]
Taxes and death. Twin towers of totalitarians.
“The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.” - Thomas Jefferson
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.