Vice President Kamala Harris promised on Saturday to eliminate taxes on service workers’ wages as previously proposed. President Donald Trump.
During a rally in Las Vegas, Harris stood in line, alongside Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, and praised the work of the culinary workers union that supported him Friday and vowed to continue to support policies that would benefit union workers.
“While I am president, we will continue our fight for working American families, including raising the minimum wage and eliminating tip taxes for service and restaurant workers,” Harris said.
Following his comments at the Las Vegas rally, a Harris campaign official clarified that his push to eliminate tipping would require legislation. If elected president, Harris would work with Congress on a proposal that would impose an income cap and impose strict requirements to prevent hedge fund managers and lawyers from arranging their fees to take advantage of politics.
The official said Harris would push the proposal with an increase in the minimum wage as well.
In response to Harris’ remarks, Trump accused her of stealing his proposed policies in a post on the Truth Social platform.
“Kamala Harris, whose ‘Honemoon’ season is ENDING and starting to get voted off, just copied my TIP-TAX policy,” he wrote. He added that he mentioned the proposal only for “political purposes”.
“This was a TRUMP idea,” he said. “He can only steal from me.”
At a rally in Las Vegas in June, Trump announced a policy proposal to eliminate the tip tax. Karoline Leavitt, a spokeswoman for Trump’s campaign, did not offer details about the proposal at the time; he told NBC News in an email in June that Trump is “asking Congress to eliminate tipping.”
Several congressional Republicans have introduced bills to free up tip revenue since Trump’s policy announcement. However, Trump’s campaign speech had drawn mixed reactions among Republicans, with some expressing skepticism about the idea because of the growing national debt and uncertainty about whether it would be fair to workers who don’t get tips.
Some restaurant workers and advocates were also lukewarm on Trump’s proposal, saying they favored increases in base wages over eliminating the tip tax, NBC News reported.
A Yale University analysis of a bill spearheaded by Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, called the “No Tax on Tips Act,” found that it would affect only an estimated 2.5 percent of the workforce and 5 percent of workers in the bottom 25. % of wage earners.
Asked if Harris would support Republican-led bills to free up tip revenue, a Harris campaign official reiterated that eliminating the tip tax would require legislation and that Harris, if elected, would work with Congress on a policy proposal.
When asked about Trump’s proposal in June, Lael Brainard, director of the White House National Economic Council, pointed to restrictions on political activity by West Wing officials outlined in the Hatch Act.
Brainard also told reporters in a June call that President Joe Biden, whose re-election campaign was active at the time, has “fought for real solutions that really address the legitimate need of workers for fair wages” and that he has better proposals for Nevada wage earners. such as a higher minimum wage and overtime protections.
“So our view is that a meaningful set of policy changes that would really raise the standard of living for Nevada workers and workers across the country would be to raise the minimum wage and eliminate the trickle-down minimum wage, which would result in an additional $6,000 a year in income,” he said.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com