United Liberty

We’re a little late to the story on this, but as you may have heard President Barack Obama suspended a 15-cent Christmas tree tax that was to be applied this year on freshly cut trees for the holiday season:

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is going to delay implementation and revisit a proposed new 15 cent fee on fresh-cut Christmas trees,  sources tell ABC News. The fee, requested by the National Christmas Tree Association in 2009, was first announced in the Federal Registry yesterday and has generated criticism of President Obama from conservative media outlets.

The well-trafficked Drudge Report is leading with the story, linking to a blog by David Addington, a former top aide to then-Vice President Dick Cheney, at the conservative Heritage Foundation assailing the president thus: “The economy is barely growing and nine percent of the American people have no jobs. Is a new tax on Christmas trees the best President Obama can do? And, by the way, the American Christmas tree has a great image that doesn’t need any help from the government.”

The National Christmas Tree Association says the fee would fund a program “designed to benefit the industry and will be funded by the growers” and is “not expected to have any impact on the final price consumers pay for their Christmas tree.” According to the Federal Registry, the proposed Christmas Tree Promotion Board, which would be funded by the new fee, would launch 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” and to “enhance the image of Christmas trees and the Christmas tree industry in the United States.”

As noted by Doug Mataconis, this was a tax on growers, not on those that would be purchasing the trees. It should come as no surprise that this tax was a product of cronyism. It was also a bad PR move by the Obama Administration, being seen as president that takes his big government views so far that he is will to tax Christmas.

The Christmas tree industry wanted to encourage live trees as many families, including mine, opt for an artificial tree. Let’s face it, they’re easier to clean up after and stow away and then subsenquently reuse the next year.

While it wasn’t a substantial tax, this is rent-seeking at its worst. And while Obama will continue to cast himself as someone not beholden to special interest, here is another example of how he is fooling Americans that believe him.