Democratic Senators Back Trump’s ‘No Tax on Tips’ Bill

(UnitedHeadlines.com) – Nevada Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto and Sen. Jacky Rosen are backing Texas Sen. Ted Cruz’s “No Tax on Tips Act.”

The proposal, promised to be pushed through by Republican presidential nominee and former President Donald Trump during a June 9 rally in Nevada, would create a deduction “equal to the cash tips received” by tipped employees. Since tipped workers do not always itemize, the bill includes language to allow the deduction to be applied to those who non-itemize.

The bill has been sent to the Senate Finance Committee, though no hearings have been scheduled yet.

When Cruz proposed the bill, Republicans Florida Sen. Rick Scott, Montana Sen. Steve Daines, and North Dakota Sen. Kevin Cramer signed on, and, on July 11, the Nevada senators and Republicans Nebraska Sen. Pete Ricketts and Mississippi Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith also signed on to the bill.

In a post on Twitter, Rosen wrote that the state “has the highest percentage of tipped workers,” adding that “immediate financial relief” would be given to workers by “eliminating the federal income tax on tips.” Rosen noted that she and Cortez Masto’s cosponsorship made the bill bipartisan.

In a statement, Cortez Masto said the bill “is just one” of many efforts she supports to “cut taxes for tipped workers.”

The Culinary Workers Union Local 226 had called “wild campaign promises from a convicted felon.” However, they praised the Democrats for signing on to the proposal. Union Secretary-Treasurer Ted Pappageorge said the bipartisan legislation would help tipped workers “keep their tips without paying federal income tax on them.”

A first-term senator, Rosen worked in 1979 as a waitress at Caesars Palace, and, during the summers of the 1980s, worked as a member of Culinary Workers Union Local 226. Rosen is running for reelection against Republican Sam Brown.

According to a report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Nevada has 25.8 food industry servers per 1,000 jobs, the highest concentration of tipped workers in the country.