WASHINGTON — President Biden on Monday endorsed former President Donald Trump’s proposal to eliminate taxes on tips — though the White House refused to acknowledge that Trump came up with the idea — after Vice President Kamala Harris also allegedly “stole” the concept Saturday.
Trump has for about two months made the idea a centerpiece of his campaign for a second term — encouraging supporters to sign restaurant checks “Trump 2024: No Taxes on Tips.”
“Absolutely, look this is something that the president supports,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said at the regular White House briefing — before deflecting questions about how exactly Biden came to support the change and why he never has publicly taken action to advocate or implement it.
“He supports eliminating taxes on tips for service and hospitality workers while also raising [the] minimum wage and preventing the wealthy from gaming the system,” she said.
Asked about why the idea was not included in Biden’s annual budget in March, Jean-Pierre said, “I don’t have a timeline for you.”
“What I can say is the president supports this … the president, the vice president has [sic] done the work to try to make sure we put working people first,” she said.
Biden had no public events Monday and did not personally address his support for the cause or outline any plans to accomplish the reform through either executive or legislative action.
Trump, 78, announced his tax-free-tips idea in mid-June and says it was inspired by his conversation with a Nevada waitress who noted that most tips are electronic and that the IRS keeps a watchful eyes on the gratuities.
“I got my information from a very smart waitress,” he said last month at the Republican convention in Milwaukee.
Trump unveiled the pitch as he ran against Biden, 81, and has continued to aggressively push the plan during Harris’ three-week-old substitute candidacy.
Harris, 59, said she too supports the idea while campaigning in Nevada on Saturday — without crediting the original proponent.
“It is my promise to everyone here, when I am president, we will continue our fight for working families of America, including to raise the minimum wage and eliminate taxes on tips for service and hospitality workers,” Harris said at a rally in Las Vegas.
Trump fumed that Harris “just copied my NO TAXES ON TIPS Policy.”
“The difference is, she won’t do it, she just wants it for Political Purposes!” Trump wrote on social media.
“This was a TRUMP idea – She has no ideas, she can only steal from me.”
The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget said in a June analysis that the plan would reduce federal revenue by between $150 billion and $250 billion over 10 years.
Trump, who is campaigning on other tax cuts that would deepen his 2017 rate reductions, argues that lower taxes would increase economic activity, thereby making up the difference.
