O tannenbaum, Obama tax thee

Sometimes small events elicit big truths. Take the short-lived Obama Christmas tree tax. It illustrates how grotesque government's role can become under the tutelage of modern liberalism.

Once upon a time, Christmas tree producers attempted to create a board to promote and market live Christmas trees, funded by voluntary contributions. Tree growers gave at first, but donations later waned as some growers failed to see the need.

Those who liked the idea approached the Obama administration to force recalcitrant growers, under penalty of law, to contribute to the fund. Because President Obama knows no bounds when it comes to the government's role in private business and private lives, his men whistled while they worked to draw up the executive order paperwork to impose a mandatory 15-cent per tree tax and create the federal Christmas Tree Promotion, Research and Information Board.

The board would consist of 12 members from various regions of the Christmas tree growing community to "increase efficiency in processing, enhance the development of new markets and marketing strategies, increase market efficiency and enhance the image of Christmas trees and the Christmas tree industry in the United States."

David Addington of the Heritage Foundation discovered the largely unknown new tax in the Federal Register and sounded the alarm. It produced an outcry from conservatives who rightly advocate a limited role for government.

And that produced a knee-jerk response from liberals, almost all of whom would have no philosophical problem using government to control almost any aspect of American lives, from what "good" we do via government to help the poor and homeless, to what movies we watch, what books we read and what drugs we're allowed to take and food we may eat.

It's not a real tax, some said. It's a program to promote the use of real Christmas trees, similar to the "Got Milk?" campaign for the milk industry.

And the Obama administration, no doubt hypersensitive to the idea of becoming the Grinch who taxed Christmas trees less than a year before the election, intoned: "What's being talked about here is an industry group deciding to impose fees on itself to fund a promotional campaign."

But that wasn't quite the truth. Many growers wouldn't pay the voluntary contribution. So those who did turned to the compliant Obama administration to force everyone into it.

That's a tax by any definition. And a creepy one at that.

Obama can cry all he wants about not being the first mover on this tax, but if he had anyone near this process with enough sense to understand the proper role of government, his administration would have told the Christmas tree growers to promote their own product.

That didn't happen because Team Obama consists of people who love unnecessary government regulation in private business and private lives. They believe they know best, and they would like nothing better than to impose their "eat-your-kale" wisdom on everyone else.

In this case, tree farmers will sell about 17 million fresh trees this Christmas season. Good for them. And the Targets and Wal-Marts of the country will sell 17.4 million artificial trees. Good for them.

It's a fair match, Mr. President. Have a little horse sense and stay out of it.

The end.

Sherman Frederick, former publisher of the Las Vegas Review-Journal, writes a column for Stephens Media. Read his blog at lvrj.com/blogs/sherm.