Christmas tree sellers who sell more than 500 trees annually must pay it to the Federal Government – it’s not voluntary. — Maggie at Maggie’s Notebook

With “help” like this, who needs a recession?

A new federal tax imposed by the Department of Agriculture (how do they do that? Only Congress can tax) will “improve the image” of live Christmas trees. I didn’t know Christmas trees had an image problem. Bet you didn’t either. The tax will pay for a “Christmas Tree Promotion Board.” This is incredible . . .

But it’s not really a “tax”, is it? They can dodge that charge by calling it a “fee”:

Acting Administrator [of Agricultural Marketing David R.] Shipman had the temerity to say the 15-cent mandatory Christmas tree fee “is not a tax nor does it yield revenue for the Federal government” (76 CFR 69102). The Federal government mandates that the Christmas tree sellers pay the 15-cents per tree, whether they want to or not. The Federal government directs that the revenue generated by the 15-cent fee goes to the Board appointed by the Secretary of Agriculture to carry out the Christmas tree program established by the Secretary of Agriculture.

More gruesome details are here.