Author: Nandita Bose
LAS VEGAS (Reuters) – President Donald Trump is capping a frenetic first week back in office with a visit to Las Vegas on Saturday to discuss cutting the tax on tips, a 2024 campaign promise centered on the gambling and hospitality industry.
Since taking office on Monday, the new Republican president has reversed a host of policies introduced by Democratic predecessor Joe Biden and moved to fulfill his pledge to reshape and shrink the federal bureaucracy.
In visits Friday to disaster areas in North Carolina and California, Trump pledged federal aid to help those states recover from hurricanes and wildfires after he floated the idea of shutting down the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
In Las Vegas, Trump is expected to discuss a less controversial pledge to eliminate taxes on tip and overtime income, a proposal he first floated in June while courting service workers in the swing state of Nevada. The highly tipped hospitality industry accounts for more than a fifth of all jobs.
“Can you remember that little statement about tips?” Trump said during one of several inauguration day speeches on Monday. “Anyone remember that little statement? I think we won Nevada because of that statement.”
Michael McDonald, chairman of the Nevada Republican Party, said the idea is appealing to people in the state who face high prices for basic goods like food and fuel.
“He cares about no tip tax, no Social Security tax. That’s something we brought to the community and everybody liked it because we were all hurting,” McDonald told local television after welcoming Trump on Friday night .
Trump has vowed to pursue an aggressive tax-cutting agenda if re-elected, which could face some obstacles even in the US Congress controlled by his fellow Republicans.
Proposals Trump floated on the campaign trail — from extending the 2017 tax cuts to eliminating taxes on tips, overtime and Social Security benefits — could increase the nation’s debt by $7.5 trillion over the next decade, according to the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Government. budget.
Trump is pushing a plan to specifically use revenue from higher tariffs on imported goods to pay for an additional trillion dollars in tax cuts, an unprecedented move that is likely to face opposition from Republican budget hawks concerned about the reliability and durability of tariff revenue.
Days before he returned to office, some of his Republican allies in Congress warned that Trump’s aggressive tax-cut agenda could fall victim to signs of concern in the bond market.
In a closed-door meeting on Capitol Hill, House Republicans expressed concern that the estimated $4 trillion cost over the next 10 years of extending Trump’s 2017 tax cuts could undermine the U.S. government’s ability to service its growing $36 trillion debt at a rate of 2 trillion dollars a year.
