(5 of 5)
Nevertheless, the imposition of stricter limits on business entertainment deductions would almost certainly have an effect on corporate folkways. No longer would executives be able to sit down to three-star French fare without thinking of the bottom line. Charles Clotfelter, a professor of economics at Duke University, anticipates that the result will be a healthy dose of moderation. "It's still important for businesses to entertain," he says. "It always has been. But I expect to see entertaining on a much less grandiose scale." So, presumably, does Ronald Reagan.
FOOTNOTE: *Presidential martini rhetoric has inflated at a pace roughly equal to that of the economy. According to former Senator Eugene McCarthy, John F. Kennedy spoke disparagingly of the "martini lunch" and 1972 Democratic Presidential Candidate George McGovern inveighed against the "two-martini lunch." Jimmy Carter, a no-martini Baptist, raised the critical count to three in 1978.