As the rest of the country rolls up its sleeves, PR people may be
loosening their belts.
Unsure whether the best way to help their country is to offer pro bono
work or to send hefty checks to relief agencies, flacks may put
themselves to good use by revisiting their glory days, and by being the
first to the trough.
To encourage consumers to spend, spend, spend, Congressional
budget-crafting wizards are moving to allow taxpayers to deduct 100% of
the cost of a business meal, removing a 1993 restriction that made such
meals only 50% tax deductible.
In other words, US lawmakers are finally moving the return of the
three-martini lunch - one of the PR industry's fondest institutional
memories - to the front of the national agenda.
The motive for the return to government-assisted gluttony is to help the
troubled restaurant and hotel industry, and to ease the general business
tax burden.
We'll drink to that!
