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News alert: the Obama administration planned last week to tax your Christmas tree, apparently part of the liberal atheists’ war on Christmas. You didn’t hear about it? Good, it never happened. But you wouldn’t know that from some media outlets’ news reports.
Under the program, which was set to go into effect last week, 15 cents from the sale of every tree would be set aside for a board of industry representatives to oversee “promotion, research, evaluation and information designed to strengthen the Christmas tree industry’s position in the marketplace.”
This is not a new concept. Every time we buy potatoes, mushrooms, watermelon or almonds, the producer pays a set amount — usually pennies on the dollar — to a board responsible for promoting the product. You probably recognize a few campaigns:
- “Cotton The Fabric of Our Lives.”
- “The Incredible, Edible Egg.”
- “Got Milk?”
- “Beef: It’s What’s for Dinner.”
- “Pork: The Other White Meat.”
Similar programs are in place for plenty of agricultural products, like popcorn, blueberries, soybeans, honey and mohair (Not sure what mohair is? It’s products from the hair of the Angora goat).
Last week, the White House put an end to the program for Christmas trees before it got off the ground. Producers wanted to see it happen, what with declining tree sales as more consumers buy artificial trees. For more then three years, Christmas tree growers, including several local farms, have been working through USDA regulatory red tape to get to this point.
A tax? Far from it. This was as simple as one group of farmers pooling their resources to help each other out. And it certainly wasn’t the Obama administration’s idea. What the White House did though, was turn and run instead of standing up for hard-working American farmers who want nothing more than to see their business survive.
What happened last week is the unfortunate combination of a death-before-taxes mentality in one camp of the far right with irresponsible journalists and pundits who didn’t bother to do so much as clarify some basic facts before reporting and commenting. And we wonder why there is such distrust for the news media.
Coming from someone who has made a career in the news industry, I’m more than happy to sling some mud at my colleagues. The farmers who worked to get this initiative approved deserve better. We all do.
News alert: the Obama administration planned last week to tax your Christmas tree, apparently part of the liberal atheists’ war on Christmas. You didn’t hear about it? Good, it never happened. But you wouldn’t know that from some media outlets’ news reports.
Under the program, which was set to go into effect last week, 15 cents from the sale of every tree would be set aside for a board of industry representatives to oversee “promotion, research, evaluation and information designed to strengthen the Christmas tree industry’s position in the marketplace.”
This is not a new concept. Every time we buy potatoes, mushrooms, watermelon or almonds, the producer pays a set amount — usually pennies on the dollar — to a board responsible for promoting the product. You probably recognize a few campaigns:
- “Cotton The Fabric of Our Lives.”
- “The Incredible, Edible Egg.”
- “Got Milk?”
- “Beef: It’s What’s for Dinner.”
- “Pork: The Other White Meat.”
Similar programs are in place for plenty of agricultural products, like popcorn, blueberries, soybeans, honey and mohair (Not sure what mohair is? It’s products from the hair of the Angora goat).
Last week, the White House put an end to the program for Christmas trees before it got off the ground. Producers wanted to see it happen, what with declining tree sales as more consumers buy artificial trees. For more then three years, Christmas tree growers, including several local farms, have been working through USDA regulatory red tape to get to this point.
A tax? Far from it. This was as simple as one group of farmers pooling their resources to help each other out. And it certainly wasn’t the Obama administration’s idea. What the White House did though, was turn and run instead of standing up for hard-working American farmers who want nothing more than to see their business survive.
What happened last week is the unfortunate combination of a death-before-taxes mentality in one camp of the far right with irresponsible journalists and pundits who didn’t bother to do so much as clarify some basic facts before reporting and commenting. And we wonder why there is such distrust for the news media.
Coming from someone who has made a career in the news industry, I’m more than happy to sling some mud at my colleagues. The farmers who worked to get this initiative approved deserve better. We all do.
