It is infuriating to see the media and politicians, including Democratic ones, refer to some of Trump’s campaign promises as “populist” tax cuts. Clearly, they were poll and focus-group tested and likely helped him win votes (the Republican team is more competent than the Democratic one), but they are not in any meaningful sense populist.

Let’s start with the most plausibly populist: ending taxes on tips. This will help some real working-class people, especially in Las Vegas where a reasonable number of people do both have substantial tip income and pay taxes. But it will provide little or no benefit to the bulk of people earning tips for the simple reason they don’t pay income taxes.

If that is hard to understand, then do a little homework. The average weekly wage in the hotel and restaurant industry is $485. That comes to just over $25,000 a year, if a person works a full year. If this person gets $5,000 a year in tips then Trump saved them roughly $500. That’s not trivial, but probably not a big change in their living standards.

But working a full year is a very big “if.” Many people, especially in low-paying jobs, do not work a full-year. Health, family, or school may mean that they only work part of the year. According to the Social Security Administration, 45.6 million 

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