Senate Finance Committee Chairman: Trump's plan for tax-free extra time is “as faux as his tan”

The chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, Ron Wyden, on Friday sharply criticized Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and his latest campaign promise: the abolition of income tax on overtime pay.

“Donald Trump is losing, and these tax proposals he is circulating out of desperation are as wrong as his tan,” Wyden said in a statement.

The Oregon Democrat, who chairs the Senate Tax Policy Committee, said the former president knew Republicans in Congress had no intention of passing this stuff.

“It's obvious that his newfound concern for working people is a fraud,” Wyden argued, “because as president he has undermined overtime protections for workers.”

He added: “You can always count on him to treat workers like suckers he can buy off with empty campaign promises here and there.”

Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung fired back at Wyden, telling CNBC that the senator should not “disrespect hard-working Americans and take money out of their pockets.”

“But that's not surprising coming from a loser like Wyden, who has a history of persecuting ordinary Americans,” Cheung added.

Senator Ron Wyden, Democrat of Oregon and ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, speaks during a hearing with Robert Lighthizer, U.S. Trade Representative, not pictured, in Washington, DC, U.S., Tuesday, March 12, 2019.

Anna Moneymaker | Bloomberg |

Trump unveiled the tax-free overtime proposal on Thursday during his first campaign rally since his heated debate on Tuesday night against Democratic vice presidential candidate Kamala Harris.

“As part of our additional tax cuts, we will eliminate all overtime taxes,” he said at the rally in Tucson, Arizona.

“If you work overtime and you work more than 40 hours a week, your overtime is tax-free,” Trump said.

Trump has been campaigning for president for nearly four years, but on Thursday he mentioned for the first time a proposal to eliminate the income tax on overtime. He claimed he had presented the plan to “some economists” and said their opinion was “that would be unbelievable.”

The Harris team called the surprise announcement “Trump's latest quackery,” pointing out that the Justice Department under Trump had refused to defend an Obama-era rule that would have given millions of workers overtime pay.

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Trump has already promised to cut or eliminate a number of other taxes if he wins a second term in the White House. He has said a Trump administration will not tax workers' tips or retirees' Social Security. He also promised to increase tax breaks for families with newborns and others.

Harris has also said she opposes taxing tip income.

In late August, the Penn Wharton Budget Model estimated that Trump's tax proposals at the time would increase budget deficits by nearly $6 trillion over the next decade.

Goldman Sachs A September analyst note said Harris' economic policies would lead to a larger economic recovery and stronger job growth over the next two years than Trump's plans.

Trump claims his plan to impose sweeping import tariffs will provide him with a windfall that will allow him to finance many of his plans. Economists warn that these tariffs will most likely lead to higher consumer prices.