On Aug. 10, Kamala Harris held a much-anticipated campaign rally at UNLV’s Thomas & Mack Center, her first in Las Vegas since becoming the heir-apparent of the Democratic Presidential nomination. The event went pretty much as one might expect: Nevada’s Congressional Democrats threw their support behind the ticket, Tim Walz delivered a high-energy sermon of a speech and Harris laid out all of the differences between her and Donald Trump. At this point in the Harris campaign, the chants of “We’re not going back” and “When we fight, we win” had become routine.
One thing, however, came as a surprise to everybody: Before a cheering crowd of more than 12,000, Harris declared she would support eliminating taxes on tips if elected to the presidency. What’s notable here is that Trump had already outlined this policy in his own economic agenda back in June. In other words, Harris stole his thunder, likely in an appeal to moderate voters who would have considered this then-Trump policy an important difference between the candidates and a reason to vote Republican in November.
Putting aside the speculation on political strategy, we must ask: Will UNLV students benefit from a “no tax on tips” policy? Even though both the Democratic and Republican nominee for president have already vowed their support for such a policy, it is still worth questioning if this should be a welcomed announcement. …