Tax Cuts: Increase Will Cover $4.6 Trillion Price, Trump Says

“Growth, we’re going to have tremendous growth,” Trump said when asked how he would pay for those tax cuts during a campaign stop in Las Vegas.

The former president said he would renew tax cuts from his 2017 tax law that are due to expire next year — a centerpiece of his economic agenda that has won him support from business leaders and many on Wall Street.

But extending those cuts carries a $4.6 trillion price tag and risks further increasing a federal deficit that Republicans have long promised to tame.

Trump also touted additional tax cuts — including eliminating federal taxes on tipped wages, which was the focus of his event Friday at a Mexican-Italian restaurant in Las Vegas. The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimated that such a waiver would cost between $100 billion and $200 billion over a decade.

Trump said he believed the policy would help him win over workers in Las Vegas, where hospitality remains the dominant industry, and accused Democratic rival Kamala Harris of pushing tax policies that would put more burdens on workers and small businesses.

“We’re going to let you keep 100 percent of your earnings and not be harassed,” Trump said, calling his presentation “the biggest promise” restaurant workers “have had in a long time.”

He attacked Harris for also passing the no-tax-on-tips proposal, arguing that he was simply echoing his policy for political reasons and would not follow through.

At a rally later Friday in Glendale, Arizona, Trump reiterated his view that Harris would fall short of the mark. “It will never happen to her; it’s guaranteed to happen with me, no tax on tips,” he said.

The bipartisan embrace of the idea comes as both campaigns try to vindicate key voting blocs in Nevada and other battleground states.

Trump’s comments come a day after Harris formally accepted his party’s presidential nomination, putting the two candidates in a sprint to Election Day. Harris used his acceptance speech to highlight some of his broad policy proposals, saying he would be an advocate for the middle class and implement measures to lower costs for households.

Service industry workers

Trump has made “no tax on tips” a centerpiece of his speech, and his campaign is using guerrilla marketing tactics to promote the policy. Donors to his campaign can get “VOTE TRUMP FOR NO TIP TAX” stickers to put on their restaurant checks.

Harris also chose Las Vegas to make a similar campaign promise to cut tip taxes — though her proposal would apply only to federal income taxes and leave Social Security and Medicare payroll taxes intact .

Natalie DeNardo, a mortgage broker who attended Friday’s event, said her father is a bartender at the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas and would feel a “huge impact” from the proposed no-tips policy. When asked if Harris supports the same policy, she was skeptical.

“It’s just riding the wave,” DeNardo, 41, said. “He could have done this for the last three and a half years if he really wanted to.”

Exempting tipped wages from federal taxes has the potential to lower the tax bills of the more than six million hospitality workers who reported a total of $38.3 billion in tipped income in 2018, the latest year for which data is available Internal Revenue Service. That’s about $6,250 per tipped worker.

Despite their overlap with the so-called no-tip-tax policy, Trump is pushing for steep tax cuts targeting corporations and higher incomes, while Harris is taking President Joe Biden’s lead in supporting proposals to raise the corporate rate to 28. % from 21% and raising taxes on the wealthy while pledging not to raise taxes on those making less than $400,000.