AOC Rails Against Trump’s No Tax on Tips ‘Scam’ in ‘Deal with the Devil’ Budget Bill
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) called President Donald Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” a “deal with the devil” and claimed his long-promised “no tax on tips” is a scam.
The House convened on Wednesday following the Senate’s passing of Trump’s budget bill, and a number of Democrats railed against the bill during a floor debate, including Ocasio-Cortez. The congresswoman referenced her past work as a bartender while calling the “no tax on tips” provision in the bill a “scam” on workers. Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” would end federal taxes on tips.
“On this point of tax on tips, as one of the only people in this body who has lived off of tips, I want to tell you a little bit about the scam of that text, a little bit of the fine print there,” Ocasio-Cortez told her colleagues in the House.
The “no tax on tips” provision, she noted, has an annual limit of $25,000. The bill also does not offer the tax break to anyone making more than $150,000 per year.
Ocasio-Cortez claimed lower-income earners are having their taxes “jacked up.” The budget bill actually includes an extension of tax cuts first passed in 2017. The congresswoman went on to refer to proposed federal cuts to Medicaid and programs like SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) in the bill.
“The cap on that is $25,000 while you’re jacking up taxes on people who make less than $50,0000 across the United States, while taking away their SNAP, while taking away their Medicaid, while kicking them off of the ACA and their health care extensions. So if you’re at home and you’re living off tips, you do the math. Is that worth it to you? Losing all your health care, not able to feed your babies, not being able to put a diaper on their bottom in exchange for what? This bill is a deal with the devil,” Ocasio-Cortez fumed.
Trump campaigned on no federal taxes on tips, and it’s a policy that polling has shown is fairly popular. According to a January poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, 54% strongly or somewhat backed the proposal while 22% strongly or somewhat opposed it. The White House also touted a June survey that found more than 80% of hourly workers support no tax on tips.
Ocasio-Cortez told Republicans on Wednesday they should be “ashamed.”
“It explodes our national debt. It militarizes our entire economy and it strips away healthcare and basic dignity of the American people — for what?” she said. “To give Elon Musk a tax break and billionaires the greedy taking of our nation. We cannot stand for it and we will not support You should be ashamed.”
Watch above via CSPAN.
