Democrats want us to believe they care about the little guy, the working class, the average American. Yet somehow, their policies always seem to hurt the people they claim to help and enrich the elites who fund their campaigns. On the campaign trail last year, President Trump proposed his No Tax on Tips plan, and the left freaked out. Though they claimed it was bad policy, Kamala Harris went on to steal the plan just a couple of months after him.
No Tax on Tips became the law of the land with the passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill, but a handful of blue state governors are refusing to give their constituents this tax relief. And the Trump administration isn’t happy about it.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent issued a blistering statement on Wednesday that exposed how far these states will go to block relief simply because it came from President Donald Trump.
Bessent described the OBBB as “the most pro-worker, pro-family legislation in a generation.” The law put real money back into the hands of people who actually earn it. No Tax on Tips for servers and bartenders. No Tax on Overtime for linemen and factory workers. A badly needed deduction for seniors who rely on Social Security. These are concrete victories for people, many of whom live paycheck to paycheck.
Yet, the Democrat governors of Colorado, New York, Illinois, and the District of Columbia decided their residents should not share the same wins. Bessent called their defiance “a blatant act of political obstructionism” and said these states are “deliberately blocking their own residents from receiving these historic benefits at the state level.” He laid out the consequences in plain terms. Governors and legislatures in these states are squeezing families harder and taking more from workers.
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It is a calculated move. Democrat leaders know the No Tax on Tips provision is immensely popular with the very voters they claim to represent. They know overtime workers deserve a break. They know seniors need every bit of relief they can get. They just cannot bring themselves to acknowledge that Trump delivered it. So they are choosing to punish their own residents to resist Trump.
Bessent’s warning made the stakes clear. “This partisan stonewalling is a direct assault on the very families and workers liberal politicians claim to champion,” he said.
Bessent challenged these governors to drop the political games. “We call on these holdout states to immediately conform and stop punishing their citizens for partisan games,” he said.
Will they? I have my doubts. The radical base of the party wanted Democrats to shut down the country, and they did, regardless of the pain it caused to federal workers and others. Despite claiming to be the party of the little guy, they’d much rather stick it to Trump than let the little guy get any relief because of Trump.
Bessent added that the Treasury stands ready to work with any state that wants to deliver relief, but he also issued a sharp reminder that the administration will not tolerate policies that drag down the national recovery.
The message landed with force. This fight is about fairness and opportunity. It is about putting America first by putting its workers first. Trump delivered tax relief. Blue-state politicians are trying to stop their own people from receiving it.
That’s a gamble I doubt they’ll win.
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