February monthly column: Taking back the American dream
PROTECTED CONTENT
If you’re a current subscriber, log in below. If you would like to subscribe, please click the subscribe tab above.
Username and Password Help
Please enter your email and we will send you a password reset link.
By Sen. Tommy Tuberville
Americans across the country are preparing for tax season as W-2s make their way to everyone’s mailboxes.
People often compare filling out their tax forms to learning a new language because of how stressful and confusing it can be. However, this year, I’m proud to say that Alabamians will be bringing home more money than ever thanks to the Working Families Tax Cuts – formerly known as the One Big Beautiful Bill.
From Marshall to Baldwin County, Alabamians in EVERY county will get to keep more of their hard-earned money this year. We have finally done something about the affordability crisis Americans are facing rather than spewing talking points in the face of working-class Americans who are looking for answers.
On July 4, 2025, President Trump gave our nation’s birthday yet another reason to be celebrated when he signed into law the most historic tax cuts of my lifetime. Thanks to the Working Families Tax Cuts, the average American will see a $3,752 tax cut in 2026, combining to a total of $50 billion more in tax returns this year.
We not only prevented the largest tax hike in history, but we cemented into law CRITICAL pro-growth tax provisions that are already delivering for Alabamians. For the first time in decades, forgotten Americans have been remembered.
Blue-collar workers, who make our country go round, are finally getting the recognition they deserve. Nearly 50% of Alabamians will benefit from this bill – especially our seniors and service industry workers.
One of the provisions I’m most proud of is No Tax on Overtime, which I was proud to lead in the U.S. Senate. Thousands of Alabamians put in well over 40 hours a week so they can save for retirement, put their kids through college and keep our state running. The idea that these extra hours would be punished in their tax filings is a disgrace to the American dream of hard work and achievement.
Thankfully, paying taxes on overtime is now a thing of the past. Removing taxes on overtime pay is also a huge win for our brave law enforcement officers who often serve long hours keeping us safe.
Now more than ever, we empower those who are putting themselves in harm’s way to protect our communities. Police, construction workers, truck drivers, first responders, and many more will see the fruit of their labor in a new way come April. It is past time that their hard-earned time and money should be felt in their wallets.
No Tax on Tips is another example of keeping hard-earned money in taxpayers’ accounts instead of giving our bloated government more money to waste. We expect the best hospitality and service from many workers who are in customer-oriented roles. When customers tip them, we have been falsely led to believe the whole amount will be kept by the employee we are gifting a tip to.
I’d like to think giving a tip would mean something to the worker – a tangible expression of gratitude from their customer. Unfortunately, those tips have been taxed, and those workers haven’t been rewarded the whole amount they are given. The Fed has long been scamming the service industry, but not anymore.
Now, regularly tipped workers can claim up to $25,000 for deductions. This is a huge win for the people who we trust to meet the everyday needs so many of us take for granted.
Nearly 143,000 Alabamians received Social Security checks in 2024. Seniors work the majority of their adult lives so that they can retire comfortably. But, since the 80s, the government has been double taxing these benefits.
We spend our entire adult lives paying taxes on the income we earn during our careers, and up until now, retirees have been taxed AGAIN on their Social Security benefits. Not only do these historical tax cuts end that practice, but my bill, the Senior Citizens Tax Elimination Act, would do so, too.
Our seniors shouldn’t have to get to the end of their careers and then get hit with yet another tax. Thanks to President Trump’s leadership with the Working Families Tax Cuts, we are finally putting American taxpayers FIRST.
The No Tax on Social Security provision is a rare and welcome victory for adults 65 and older who should rightfully reap the reward of their years of labor.
The great Charlie Kirk famously charged Americans to “get married and have kids,” any chance he could. America is staring a population decline dead in the face as a result of the affordability crisis that has gone unaddressed for TOO LONG. Too many people tell me they feel that their work is for nothing.
Our Founding Fathers would be ashamed of how we’ve used our own government to destroy the American Dream. It is the least we can do to honor Charlie’s legacy by making the American Dream within reach to anyone who wants it. The Working Families Tax Cuts give Americans the chance to take their lives back into their own hands and feel like their work is NOT in vain.
Whether it is through Trump Accounts, empowering small businesses by job creation and tax deduction, direct tax-free K-12 education scholarships, ridding fraud from the health care system, defunding large abortion providers, empowering law enforcement and securing our border, or eliminating costly regulations on automakers and farmers, EVERY working family will have new avenues to SAVE their money and THRIVE.
Tax season should be a stepping stool into helping Alabama’s working families plan their future, and these tax cuts will do just that.