Exclusive — Steve Daines: Republicans Are ‘Ready to Fire’ on Donald Trump’s No Tax on Tips Policy
BELGRADE, Montana — Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT), the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), told Breitbart News in an in-depth interview at his home in Montana that Republicans on Capitol Hill will be ready to execute former President Donald Trump’s no tax on tips policy immediately upon his election victory.
“You think about the working class struggling under the Biden economy, struggling with 20 percent inflation,” Daines told Breitbart News in a lengthy interview filmed at his home in Montana just outside Bozeman in mid-June. “Well, think about a 20 percent tip, guess what? That kind of helps offset the impact of Joe Biden’s economy, and it brings more people into the workforce, incentivizing people to work — because we’re not going to tax tips — incentivizing people to even do a better job in serving, in a service economy like Las Vegas. You think about those who work in the casinos, the cab drivers, the gig economy, waiters, and waitresses — that was a really great move not only for Nevada but for the entire country. The Republicans are now the party of the working class. The Democrats are the elite, educated, wine-sippers. We’ve become the beer-drinking party of the hardworking men and women in this country.”
The idea of not taxing tips is so popular that people have begun writing on their restaurant receipts that the wait staff should vote for Trump to make more money and not have to pay taxes to the federal government on the tips left for them. Daines even mentioned that he and his wife have seen stamps people are using to spread the message.
“My wife sent me a picture — they’ve got a little stamp now that people can keep in their pockets that says, ‘Vote Trump. No Taxes on Tips,’” Daines said. “They’re stamping their receipt each time they’re going out to eat.”
The broader Daines interview — which was recorded as part of Breitbart News’s long-form On The Hill video series before the debate between GOP presidential nominee Trump and current Democrat President Joe Biden that led to Biden eventually being forced out of the race — focuses on Daines’s read of the U.S. Senate map as Republicans aim to retake a majority in the upper chamber of Congress in November. But, interestingly, since Democrats switched to Vice President Kamala Harris as their presidential nominee, she has copied Trump’s idea of not taxing tips — and Democrat Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-NV), who is up for reelection and skipped the Democratic National Convention (DNC) in Chicago, has also flip-flopped and says she supports the idea. While these Democrats, like Harris and Rosen, offer lip service claiming they support the popular idea that Trump first introduced, it is clear the Democrats have no legislative vehicles or mechanisms to actually execute it. In fact, Harris was the deciding vote in the U.S. Senate for the Orwellian-named “Inflation Reduction Act,” which did not reduce inflation but did hire extra IRS agents to target workers’ tips. Rosen voted for that Harris-led bill that sent IRS agents after tipped workers.
Republicans, on the other hand, actually have legislation chambered and ready to go to accomplish this objective, as Daines laid out for Breitbart News. Trump is set to hold a rally on Friday afternoon in Las Vegas, Nevada, promoting his policy on no taxes on tips. One of the big themes of the rally is likely to be how Harris and Rosen and the rest of their Democrat comrades are frauds on this and have no plan, while the Republicans actually do. Daines, in his interview with Breitbart News, explained how he is on the legislation in the Senate — and there is already a House companion bill, too. Once the congressional elections are settled in addition to the presidential race, if Trump and Republicans win in November, it is very likely they will use a process called reconciliation in the Senate that only requires 51 votes to reauthorize the Trump tax cuts, ending taxes on tips in the process. Trump has also said he wants to end the tax on Social Security income for seniors, and this legislative vehicle would likely be a home for that policy, as well. So, again, if Americans actually want these things to get done rather than just listen to politicians say they support them without ever doing them, then Republicans winning the White House, Senate, and House would, in effect, get them done, and they already have a plan to do it.
“I’m introducing the bill. I’m on the Finance Committee,” Daines told Breitbart News. “The Finance Committee has jurisdiction over taxes. Newt Gingrich advises President Trump, and, President Trump, of course, and Newt and I talk frequently. Newt said, ‘Steve, you should introduce that bill.’ I said, ‘I was planning to.’ So, I’m introducing that bill of no taxes on tips so we’ve basically got a live round, as we say, ready to fire. Start talking about it now so we’re ready to go when President Trump gets elected.”
Daines is 100 percent correct that the legislation to do this has been introduced already and that he is leading it along with Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX), Rick Scott (R-FL), and Kevin Cramer (R-ND). A House companion plan from Reps. Byron Donalds (R-FL) and Derrick Van Orden (R-WI) was also introduced in early July. So, again, the Republicans are actually ready to go on this, while the Democrats are not.
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