Political Quotes

“We have seen that every year. In fact it is very interesting for me to go back, check, have my staff to go back and check the revenue projections from the luxury tax, because obviously it is a static score; right? You tax something, you get more of it. Wrong. The new 10 percent luxury tax on boats, cars, furs, et cetera, was to raise $25 million, Mr. Speaker, in its first year, 1991, and almost $1.5 billion over 5 years, from 1991 to 1996. And you know what it did? Sales of boats under $100,000 purchase price dropped 12.2 percent. Sales of boats over $100,000 dropped 52.7 percent. The sales of volume of boats under $100,000 of value dropped 28 percent, to $129 million. Sales of boats over $100,000 dropped 71 percent, to $73 million. According to the National Marine Manufacturers Association at the time of repeal, big boat sales were down 70 percent from peak levels in 1988. And here is the ultimate irony as we have discussed. At the time of the repeal, Mr. Speaker, the National Marine Manufacturers Association estimated that the luxury tax created a net loss of 30,000 American jobs and destroyed dozens of companies in the process. Other estimates were higher, up to $45,000. And I would direct a question to my colleague from California: What does this teach us?”