Thursday, November 10, 2011

Right Wing Media gins up Phony Outrage over Christmas...Again. Tree Tax was industry idea, not Obama's.

According to the right wing media machine: “The President gets into the holiday spirit the only way he knows how: By taxing!” Let the outrage begin. First, lefties in Wisconsin claim that Scott Walker is bringing back the holiday wars by calling the holiday tree a Christmas…blah, blah, blah.

The big problem with the phony outrage demonstrated by the conservative loons; the Obama administration suspended that tax, for now. They shouldn’t have because it makes them look guilty of something, which they’re not.
ABC News: 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.

This is a fee for marketing, instituted by the association representing Christmas tree growers. Suspending the fee now jeopardizes "enhancing the image of the Christmas tree industry:
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.” 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 expand 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.”
But "looking" guilty and spinelessness is an automatic response by Democrats, still, no matter how hard we try to change that.
White House spokesman Matt Lehrich told ABC News that despite some media coverage, “What’s being talked about here is an industry group deciding to impose fees on itself to fund a promotional campaign, similar to how the dairy producers have created the ‘Got Milk?’ campaign.” Nonetheless, the criticisms have apparently had an impact as the program is now being delayed.

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