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Trump's new 'no taxes on tips' gambit gets MAGA support... but are voters buying it?
Extending an arm to the working class, Republicans are now lining up behind a Trump-led effort to eliminate taxes on tipped wages.
The former president made the demand for eliminating taxes on tips at a Las Vegas rally on June 9. He pitched the idea to Republicans on Capitol Hill days later.
The idea will not become law under the current Congress, even as House and Senate Republicans have taken up Trump's mantle.
Reps. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., and Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., immediately got behind the idea and introduced legislation in Congress.
But not all conservatives are on board. Rep. Chip Roy wrote that Greene and Massie were 'good friends' but he would 'need them to explain why we should treat [and] low wage non-tip earners differently.'
Extending an arm to the working class, Republicans are now lining up behind a Trump-led effort to eliminate taxes on tipped wages
The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimated the plan would cost between $150 billion and $250 billion in lost tax revenue.
In the Senate, Ted Cruz, R-Texas, led taxed tips legislation that drew support from Sens. Rick Scott, Fla., Steve Daines, Mont., and Kevin Cramer, N.D.
The plan would eliminate taxes on tips through cash, credit and debit by allowing such taxpayers to claim a 100 percent deduction.
The federal minimum has stayed stagnant at $7.25 since 2009, but tipped workers can make as little as $2.13 before tips.
Under current tax law, tipped wages are treated the same as regular payroll wages, but cash tips are often not reported to the government.
The proposal could also prompt more businesses to ask customers to tip their workers at a time when many Americans are feeling 'tipping fatigue.'
Democratic strategist Tim Hogan told DailyMail.com of the proposal: 'During his term, Trump tried to implement a proposal that would have resulted in servers doing more nontipped work at a lower pay rate. He opposed raising the minimum wage. He stiffed contractors left and right. He is not on the side of working people. It's another case of his rhetoric not matching reality.'
The Trump administration implemented a rule that allowed restaurants to take the tips that servers earn and share them with untipped employees such as cooks and dishwashers. But some critics noted it didn't require employers to redistribute the tips they collected.
Trump had other big ideas that may never become law in his meetings with House Republicans. He suggested eliminating the federal income tax and replacing it with tariffs on imported goods.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates there are 2.4 waiters and waitresses that depend on tips for income across the country.
Nevada has the highest concentration of tipped workers in the country, with about 25.8 waiters and waitresses per 1,000 jobs, followed by Hawaii and Florida.
Democrats have insisted the proposal is a way for Trump to try to snatch Nevada up in the November election.
'I think that has more to do with the Electoral College in Nevada than any other policy that's been vetted,' Rep. Richard Neal, Mass., the top Democrat on the House tax committee, told the Huffington Post.
President Biden carried Nevada by 2.39 percent in 2020 and Republicans see it as a top state up for grabs this year in both the Senate and presidential elections.
Nevada's GOP Senate candidate Sam Brown said earlier this month that Trump 'scooped' him - it was his idea to eliminate taxes on tips.
'Those tips are not guaranteed income, people work hard for it,' Brown told NBC.
'To those hotel workers and people who get tips, you are going to be very happy, because when I get to office we are going to not charge taxes on tips, people making tips,' Trump had said at the Vegas rally. 'We're going to do that right away, first thing in office.'
Lael Brainard, a top Biden White House adviser, told reporters last week that Biden has other ideas for helping Nevada's wage earners.
'Our view is that the meaningful set of policy changes that would really lift the living standards of Nevada workers and workers all around the country would be to raise the minimum wage and eliminate the tipped minimum wage, leading to $6,000 more in income per year,' she said.
Tax issues will be a major factor in this election - Trump's 2017 tax cuts expire in 2025 and Republicans are laying the groundwork for a new tax plan if Republicans are successful in the elections.