Not taxing tips is a dumb gimmick. Harris is wrong to follow Trump.

Claiming a restaurant server in Las Vegas gave him the idea, former president Donald Trump promised a rally in that city in June, “We are going to not charge taxes on tips.” Though rational as a pander to a state with the highest concentration of hospitality workers in the country, the proposal took Mr. Trump’s economic advisers by surprise. It should have: Ending taxes on tipped income would warp labor markets, incentivize new forms of tax avoidance and reduce federal revenue. And yet Republicans fell into line. They incorporated the idea into the GOP platform; Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) announced the House would “pass it as soon as we can.”

To its credit, what was then President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign, which also needed to carry Nevada, refused to match what it called Mr. Trump’s “wild campaign promise.” It said there were more effective ways to reach the same goal. Lael Brainard, director of the White House National Economic Council, said tipped workers in Nevada would gain an average $6,000 from eliminating the federal tipped minimum wage and raising the general minimum wage.