Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, February 3, 1992 TAG: 9202010345
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BEN BEAGLE
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
WHY SOAK THE RICH WHEN YOU CAN PADDLE?
Anybody who says George Bush isn't a leader has overlooked the fact that he wants to repeal a 10 percent luxury tax on items like yachts.Listen, everybody on Happy Highfields Road has been waiting for something like that. I haven't asked everybody, but I can tell you that yacht fever is building on the street.
I imagine that by now all of the neighbors have placed calls to their favorite yacht makers ordering replicas of the "Monkey Business."
You can always depend on a guy who says he hates broccoli, that's what I always say.
This is also a guy who can throw up in public and then joke about it on television in a State of the Union address.
Abraham Lincoln couldn't have gotten away with that, pal. Not to mention Cal Coolidge or Richard Nixon.
You see how this will work, don't you?
All of us who have been holding off on buying a yacht because of the luxury tax will come home one afternoon and say:
"Well, Maude, say what you will about George Bush, but he's made it easier for us to buy that yacht we've been wanting.
"And while we're at it, maybe we could see about buying a nice six-passenger airplane, and the Jaguar is 2 years old, you know.
"It is a time of jubilation in this country, my dear. And, ha ha, of course we can now think seriously about buying that necklace you wanted."
All of this is supposed to mean that people who still can't afford to buy yachts will make more money building them for the insensitive rich - like you and me.
This is not to mention the people who make expensive cars, private airplanes and necklaces.
Actually, the tax applies to items that cost $100,000 and more. If you have that kind of money, I don't know why you would mind a 10 percent tax anyway.
Who was the guy who said that if you have to ask the price of a yacht, you really can't afford one?
I talk big, but if I ever paid $100,000 for anything, I would be in a coma for several years afterward.
You got any idea how long it takes most of us to make $100,000?
I looked at the price on a new-car sticker recently, and great portions of my life passed before my very eyes.
I thank the president, but I'll have to pass on a new yacht - tax or no tax.
If the urge to be merry on the water takes me anytime soon, I'll be in the market for a used kayak.
And I just hope that some of the neighbors won't feel they have to invite us for cruises on their new yachts.