Catholic League president Bill Donohue offers qualified support for the Obama administration’s decision to promote the sale of fresh Christmas trees by imposing a 15-cent tax on them (the tax is being levied to pay for a PR campaign):
President Barack Obama’s Agriculture Department got it right when it started to explore new ways to prop up the dying fresh Christmas tree industry. Taxation, of course, is always the hands-down favorite way for the federal government to do business, and no president in American history has shown a greater fondness for taxation than Obama.
The Catholic League heartily endorses this tax: the Christmas tree is a secular symbol, and by taxing them, we will have less of them. But our support is qualified. Obama would be wise to support a tax subsidy for nativity scenes. That would spur sales, thus endearing him to Christians who distrust him, while driving secularists over the cliff. Sounds like a win-win. Just think of it as a stimulus for keeping “Christ in Christmas.”
