(May 30) All the Republican members of Congress from Louisiana should explain why they are giving the economic equivalent of a middle finger to plumbers, nursing assistants, HVAC repairmen, graphic designers, sales reps, legal assistants, supply-chain analysts and scores of other workers.
U.S. Sens. Bill Cassidy and John Kennedy and U.S. Reps. Mike Johnson, Steve Scalise, Clay Higgins and Julia Letlow all have voted to exempt tips from federal income taxes. That means nearly half the income of waiters and a third of the earnings of ride-share drivers would go untaxed, while the same amount of earnings by plumbers and factory workers and the rest would be taxed at full rates.
This “no tax on tips” policy would be manifestly unfair to every single Louisiana worker who is not part of the “gig” economy. Indeed, it is a flagrant insult and an economic burden. In essence, it means nursing assistants and air-conditioning technicians would be subsidizing bartenders and valets.
To highlight the outlandish inequity of the “no tax on tips” policy is in no way to denigrate the jobs of tip-reliant workers. It just is to say that there is no logical reason — none whatsoever — to treat half their income as being more sacrosanct than half the income of dental hygienists or police officers.
I use these examples advisedly. While the precise numbers aren’t crucial, a quick AI search shows that all the above job examples make approximately the same total income per year. Indeed, for waiters and police, the comparison is almost exact: an average of $52,590 annually for restaurant waiters (according to Zip Recruiter), $53,144 for police. But (again according to AI, for illustrative purposes only), the waiter who is a single earner with standard deductions would pay only $941 in annual federal income taxes, while the cop would pay $4,376.
Yet this policy is exactly that for which all but five House Republicans voted when they passed President Donald Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” through the House on May 22, and what all 100 senators, Republican and Democrat alike, voted for as a stand-alone bill two days earlier. Cassidy, Kennedy. Johnson, Scalise, Higgins and Letlow all should be asked why a cop should pay an extra $3,435 to the federal government….. [The full column is at this link.]
