Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-NV) recently signed on as a co-sponsor to a Republican bill to remove taxes on tips, flip-flopping on her previous position on the bill.
As of Thursday, Rosen was one of two Democrat senators in Nevada who had joined S.4621 as a co-sponsor. The other senator was reported as being Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV).
Rosen’s co-sponsoring of the bill comes as former President Donald Trump has stated that if elected, he will eliminate taxes on tips. Sam Brown, Rosen’s Republican opponent in Nevada’s Senate, has also supported eliminating taxes on tips.
Brown revealed in a statement to NBC News, that Trump’s idea was “actually a policy idea” that he and his team had been developing and “were planning to roll out in the general election.”
“So in some sense, President Trump scooped us and beat us to it,” Brown added. “But that’s something we’re fully behind. Those tips are not guaranteed income, people work hard for it.”
The bill, which aims to “amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to eliminate the application of the income tax on cash tips through a deduction allowed to all individual taxpayers,” was sponsored by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX).
Johanna Warshaw, the campaign spokesperson for Rosen, described the promise to eliminate taxes on tips as being a “distraction,” according to the outlet.
“Nevada workers know they can’t trust empty talking points from self-serving politicians like Sam Brown trying to cover up their actual agenda of giving away more tax breaks to billionaires and corporate special interests,” Warshaw said. “Jacky Rosen supports cutting taxes for tipped workers and all hardworking Nevadans, and that’s why she’s been fighting for years to deliver tax relief and pass a broad-based middle class tax cut while also lowering costs and raising the minimum wage.”
In response to Rosen signing on as a co-sponsor to the Republican-backed bill, Maggie Abboud, the spokeswoman for the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) issued a statement stating that Rosen was “a spineless, flip-flopping politician” who was “desperate to save her political career.”
“Jacky Rosen is a spineless, flip-flopping politician who is desperate to save her political career,” Abboud said. “Nobody believes Rosen, whose main job in Washington is rubberstamping Joe Biden’s disastrous agenda, would help President Trump pass this bill.”
Brown also issued a statement noting that he was “pleased” that Rosen was “finally supporting a solution for working families,” adding that the idea had been “championed” by himself and Trump.
“I’m pleased to see that Jacky Rosen is finally supporting a solution for working families, an idea championed by President Trump and me,” Brown added. “Having worked in an Amazon warehouse to support my family, I understand the struggle of putting in 10- or 12-hour days just to make ends meet. Nevada workers deserve to keep more of their hard-earned money, and our plan to end taxes on tips will do just that.”
Ted Pappageorge, who serves as the secretary-treasurer for the Culinary Workers Union, had reportedly previously described Trump’s promise to eliminate taxes on tips as being an “empty one,” according to NBC News.
However, Pappageorge praised Rosen and Cortez Masto for joining the bill as co-sponsors, stating that he was “proud to have senators who are fighting to deliver real results for working families,” according to the Nevada Independent.
