In 2024's already baffling presidential race, it seems only fitting that a barroom brawl has broken out over tipping. Former President Donald Trump jump-started the debate at a campaign rally last month and seized media headlines by pledging to eliminate taxes on tips if he were reelected.
In prior decades, this might have been brushed off as mere campaign trail bluster, but today, off-the-cuff remarks on the stump are often the closest thing we have to deliberative policy making. Right on cue, Republican senators introduced legislation in Congress that would eliminate income taxes on tips, and the idea has even made its way into the Republican Party's 2024 platform.
