Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) took aim Wednesday at the $25,000 cap on the “no tax on tips” provision included in the Senate-passed version of President Trump’s “big, beautiful” spending and tax bill.
“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 said during her floor speech, amid debate on the rule for the revised megabill.
“The cap on that is $25,000,” she said, “while you’re jacking up taxes on people who make less than $50,000 across the United States, while taking away their [Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program] program, while take taking away their Medicaid, while kicking them off of the [Affordable Care Act] and their health care extensions.”
The reconciliation package, which advanced back to the House after Vice President Vance cast a tie-breaking vote Tuesday, includes a $25,000 cap on the amount of tips workers can claim in their deductions. The lower chamber’s bill, which was passed in May, did not place a cap under the “no tax on tips” provision — one of Trump’s campaign promises.
Those tax breaks, however, are temporary and are set to expire after 2028.
While the GOP policy bill does not increase tax rates for low-income workers, the after-tax take-home pay for workers could be lower after the benefit cuts are taken into account, according to nonpartisan policy analyses.
“So, if you’re at home, and you’re living off tips, you do the math,” Ocasio-Cortez said Wednesday. “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,” she continued. “It explodes our national debt, it militarizes our entire economy, and it strips away health care and basic dignity of the American people. For what? To give Elon Musk a tax break, and billionaires, the greedy, taking of our nation.”
The New York Democrat added, “We cannot stand for it, and we will not support it. You should be ashamed.”
Her criticism comes as those on the left have sought to make the voting process as uncomfortable as possible — including by placing pressure on some Republican holdouts in fragile battleground districts over the sweeping cuts to Medicaid and food stamps.
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) is scrambling to unite the conference in order to get the bill to Trump’s desk by the self-imposed July 4 deadline.