(NewsNation) — Former President Donald Trump has unveiled a proposal to eliminate federal income taxes on overtime pay. He made that idea public during a Thursday speech in Tucson, Arizona.
Eliminating taxes on overtime would give people “more of an incentive to work. It gives the companies – it’s a lot easier to get the people,” he said.
He added that “great” economists told him they like the idea.
“’It would be unbelievable,’” Trump quoted the unnamed economists as saying. “You’ll get a whole new workforce by doing that. The people who work overtime are among the hardest-working citizens in our country.”
Trump has also proposed to eliminate federal income tax for Social Security benefits and tips.
“He is desperate and scrambling and saying whatever it takes to try to trick people into voting for him,” Harris-Walz campaign spokesperson Joseph Costello said in a statement.
“When he was President before, he took executive action to rip away overtime pay for millions of workers — and his Project 2025 Agenda would make even more damaging changes for workers seeking overtime pay,” the statement added.
Trump’s proposal is a departure from the overtime revisions put forth in Project 2025, the blueprint for a second Trump term — though Trump has tried to distance himself from that blueprint.
The Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 playbook proposes an “overtime pay threshold” that is not an abolishment of overtime pay. It would allow employers to calculate overtime hours over two to four weeks, not a single week, and would base overtime strictly on the “regular rate” of pay, not including extra benefits.
NewsNation senior political contributor George Will is not a fan of the idea, which he said is one of several unrealistic campaign promises by both Trump and Kamala Harris.
“We’re in an uncommonly vulgar auction between these two candidates — both of them giving away money and giving away government revenues” despite the recent Congressional Budget Office projection of a nearly $2 trillion federal deficit.
Will noted Harris’ promises, such as raising the child tax credit to $6,000 and granting first-time homebuyers $25,000 to help with the purchase, would also increase the federal budget deficit, .