Originally Posted by zimmy
Not surprised Detbuch at how quick you were to defend the beef board. I am sure you would do the same for sugar cane, cotton, soy, corn, pork, chicken, dairy, etc. All those ag. commodities in which small farmers have been crushed by the Republican driven farm bills. Then you try to change it from "legal basis" to constitutional. Even that is ridiculous, since, I am sure you know, that the constitution gives congress the legal authority to create laws.
I didn't defend the beef board. You brought up the Beef Promotion and Research Act as the basis for the Christmas tree tax. I just pointed out the comparison is flimsy at best. Christmas trees are not a basic necessity as is food and clothing. And in the competition between artificial and natural trees, the Federal Government has no Constitutional basis for supporting one over the other. Sure, if you find the right judge anything can be found "Constitutional." But that is phony, corrupt "constitutionality," and we have evolved a current mode of centralized government based on such phoniness. And Constitutional basis is legal basis. And the Constitution does not give Congress the authority to create any laws it wants. It is authorized to create only laws that fall within its enumerated powers, which are limited. The vast lawmaking authority is left to the states and localities.
I'll leave it with this... $1.3 billion in sales in 2007 and 100,000 jobs in Christmas trees makes it hard to argue that its role in the economy is insignificant.
Actually you can update that to last year which grossed about $2 billion in sales of Christmas trees--but that figure includes artificial trees as well as natural. And when you break down the numbers about $1.25 billion of that is artificial tree sales leaving about $750 milliion for natural trees. That is gross, not net. Small potatoes in comparison to GDP. As far as the 100,000 jobs, at least half, probably more, are temporary immigrant farm laborers. And breaking down the gross sales to pay 100,000 workers averages out to about $7500/year per worker. Of course, much of the gross is other expenses and profits, so the $7500 average is more than the actual average yearly pay. The gross sales of artifical trees has more significance and the average annual pay for workers is probably much more than that of the natural tree average. Plus, though most of the artificial trees are made in China, there are American made trees. Three companies that make artificial trees in America are Mountain King, Hudson Valley Tree Co., and Holiday Tree and Trim Co. There may be others. This sector can expand if people who prefer artificial trees grows. Again, it's not the Federal Government's business to aid one against the other, nor to influence what kind of trees we should buy.
All that is beside the fact that the spirit of the thread in relation to the president is complete and utter horse manure. This thread was not about the department of agriculture.
You brought up the Ag Dept, not me. I never mentioned Obama.
You wanna have that debate, I am well prepared for it. However, I am very critical of the department of Ag.
Start the debate in another thread if you're hot and ready.
Funny thing is this Christmas tree tax is the kind of stuff that is historically very well supported by the conservatives and the "pro-business" Republican party. The only reason many of you care is because of the word tax and your chance to take a shot at Obama.
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