There is no better example of why Washington is “out to lunch” than what was recently supported by Donald Trump and tucked into the coronavirus relief bill.
Never mind that thousands of restaurants have closed across the country, and millions have lost their jobs. And of those eateries still standing, many don’t offer indoor dining. But along comes the White House, supported by the GOP in Congress, to add a tax deduction for the “three-martini lunch.”
It sounds like something left over from an old “Mad Men” script, depicting the way American business leaders worked in the 1950’s.
So why does the $900 billion coronavirus relief package passed by Congress on Monday night and sure to be signed by President Trump, contain a tax deduction provision specifically aimed at encouraging pricey dining by business executives?
Republicans who supported the idea say doubling an existing provision that allowed a tax break for only half the cost of such meals will significantly help restaurants and their workers.
“President Trump has for months talked about securing the deduction,” says the Washington Post, “as a way to revive the restaurant industry badly battered by the pandemic,”
But will it, really? Restauranteurs say no.
What the relief package does not contain, critics say, is what restaurants need most: cash, now, just to stay afloat.
The deduction, which will cost taxpayers more than $6 billion in the next three years, “has been derided by economists, Democrats, and even the staunchly conservative Wall Street Journal op-ed page as politically tone deaf, given the millions of sick and out-of-work Americans,” the Reuters news agency reports.
Except for the big chains with drive-thru pickup and delivery, the Covid-19 pandemic has crushed American restaurants, large and small. Most of those who’ve managed to survive so far are struggling, with many of their workers laid off or terminated, adding to the nation’s economic crisis.
Restaurants lost 17,400 jobs in November alone, reports NBC New York.
“Republicans are nickel-and-diming benefits for jobless workers, while at the same time pushing for tax breaks for three-martini power lunches,” Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR), the ranking Democrat on the Finance Committee, said this week.
“It’s unconscionable.”
And ironic. The restaurant business won’t recover until the end or next year or 2022, which is when the deduction runs out.
