Harris Shocks Democrats by Backing Trump’s ‘no tax on tips’ Proposal

Vice President Kamala Harris
Vice President Kamala Harris. Credit \ AP

United States: Vice President Harris has shocked the Democratic leadership by supporting Trump’s idea to exclude tips for service and hospitality workers from taxation, an idea that the Democrats earlier dismissed as “bogus” and a “ploy” for votes.

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Harris’s backing has been considered as an attempt to garner votes in Nevada, an important swing state, where service sector employees will play a crucial role.

As an attempt to counter whatever benefit Trump might have accrued when he proposed the idea in his meetings with GOP members in Washington in June.

However, important lawmakers in the Democratic party and progressive activists have cast aspersions on the body of the Proposal to exempt tipped income from taxation, fearing that it only benefits so many ‘poor’ and middle-income workers as deserving of tax relief but does not take tips, as the Hill reported.

What have the other specialists stated?

Other policy specialists also wonder how such a proposition could be advanced without envisioning nationwide strictures that would massively alter economic actions and might put more burdens on the federal treasury than the current governmental estimate of increasing the nation’s debt to USD 100- to USD 200 billion within the subsequent ten years.

Still, another criticism from the left is that many employers can avoid increasing base-level wages by using tax-free tips as an inducement.

At the same time, some businesses can take a proactive approach by encouraging customers to tip their workers instead of increasing their hourly wages, as the Hill reported.

According to one of the senior Senate Democratic aides, “It’s not something I saw coming,” and “I did not expect her to go on the tipped-wage thing. I did not see it as a serious proposal from Trump, and it doesn’t become a serious proposal now.”

Furthermore, the senior Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee and House Ways and Means Committee, which have the main jurisdiction over the tax code, also attacked the Proposal when Trump first spoke about meetings with GOP lawmakers in June.