(Although, the same holds true for sports sites that do similar things, and gossip sites that do similar things - but when we're talking politics, they should be above such gamesmanship, because, there should be a trust facto rthere that they destroy every time they have a bogus headline.
Here's what Rush had to say about it:
RUSH: Folks, there's a thing out there, "Obama's Christmas tree tax." It's not quite accurate to say this. The American Spectator has this right. "The news that the [regime's] Department of Agriculture is implementing a 'Christmas Tree Tax' has provoked outrage from folks worried about a War on Christmas -- and also those worried about taxes.
"The tax, however, wasn't the [Regime]'s idea. It was the Christmas tree lobby's creation," and the reason is: "Real Christmas trees have been steadily losing market share to artificial trees, so growers and retailers lobbied the Department of Agriculture to institute a checkoff tax and use the funds to promote real trees. The USDA has similar programs for a number of commodities, e.g. 'Got Milk?' and 'Where's the Beef?' (sic). The feds are authorized to raise revenues for such programs under the Commodity Promotion, Research, and Information Act of 1996. Needless to say, there is no problem in the Christmas tree market that necessitates this program.
"I haven't seen any poll numbers," the writer here says in the American Spectator, "but I'm going to go ahead and assume that Americans are satisfied with the currently available types of Christmas trees, and that their choices of trees are reasonably informed." Christmas trees in an economy like this start getting up to 65, 75, $80 for a Christmas tree every year that you're gonna throw away. People opt for the artificial they can bring out every year so they may pop for 150 bucks for an artificial tree, but they've got it every year. They spend the 150 and they're done with it. There has been a negative impact on the real tree, the real Christmas tree industry. So, yeah, that's what they shoulda done is move to tax the artificial trees, but the tax is actually supposed to subsidize the real tree guys because of the pain and suffering. But this writer at the American Spectator blog says, "The Christmas Tree Tax is not part of some larger War on Christmas, it just represents the successful lobbying efforts of Christmas tree growers.
"But their struggles are not the public's problem. If they want to fund a promotional campaign for their product, they should do it themselves, without involving the USDA. That goes for all similar checkoff taxes, such as the ones for beef, milk, soybeans, etc. There's no reason the federal government should be involved in shaping consumer preferences," but they are. It's a lobbying effort. This is why so many of us say it's gonna be really difficult to get rid of the tax code as it's currently structured because look at power. Just look at the simple power of social architecture. When you give a lobbyist something for an agent like the Christmas tree growers, you own 'em. It's just a tremendous amount of power that people have. But there's a story out there that Obama couldn't wait, his new Christmas tree tax. You could say it makes some sense to blame him because the federal government is for this, but it wasn't his idea -- and it's not that he disagrees with it, either. I'm sure he's all happy and hunky-dory with it.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: By the way, ladies and gentlemen, Obama has called off the Christmas tree tax. Just happened.
However, I learned something pretty interesting. "The USDA has similar programs for a number of commodities, e.g. 'Got Milk?' and 'Where's the Beef?' (sic). The feds are authorized to raise revenues for such programs under the Commodity Promotion, Research, and Information Act of 1996."
So those ads we see on TV for "Got Milk" ... those are being paid for by taxpayers dollars? Time to end that program right now!
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