OPINION: ‘No tax on tips’ sounds great until you explore the history—as many will soon discover

Tuesday, July 8, 2025 7:39 PM
Photo:  By Florian Plag - Flickr: Serve chilled., CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=19085820
  • Daniel Levinson Wilk, Fortune

A few weeks ago Charles Rangel, the Lion of Lenox Avenue, was carried into St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City with a full military guard. Rangel, a longtime U.S. congressman from Harlem, was the chair of the Ways and Means Committee in the House of Representatives, the committee with authority over taxes, tariffs, and benefits; many consider it to be the most important committee in the House. Until the election of Barack Obama, Rangel was arguably the most powerful African-American politician in the history of the United States.

As mourners gathered in the cathedral, two scandal-ridden New York politicians running to become the next mayor of the city, ex-governor Andrew Cuomo and current mayor Eric Adams, glad-handed up front with congresspeople and other notables.