This Election Marks a New Low for Fiscal Fakery
Both candidates are promising tax cuts the country can't afford — but Trump takes financial recklessness to an entirely new level.
Let foreigners pay for it all.
Photographer: Scott Olson/Getty Images
Pandering for votes is standard practice in election campaigns. But the tax-policy proposals on offer during this presidential contest are setting new standards for shamelessness.
The purest example of this bipartisan trait is a plan to exempt tips from income tax. Donald Trump raised the idea in June, then Kamala Harris joined him when she entered the race. Both made their pitch in Nevada, a battleground state, where about 5% of workers get some income from tips (the national average is 2%). President Joe Biden won there by 34,000 votes in 2020, so winning over some of its 350,000 hospitality workers could make the difference.