Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., noted that a Boy Scout proposed a policy of not taxing workers younger than age 18.

The congressman from the Bluegrass State listed several reasons why he loves the idea.

"A 15 yr old Boy Scout working on his merit badge just sent me this idea: No taxes on workers under 18 yrs old. I love it because: 1. They need experience to pick a college major 2. They need to develop a work ethic 3. The economy needs more workers 4. They don’t get to vote," Massie wrote in a post on X.

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Someone responded to the lawmaker, suggesting that youths "don’t make enough money for the most part and get it back when they file taxes. It is a good lesson on how to file taxes and gives them a chance to get a return," the person opined.

Massie replied, "Sounds like conditioning to be sheeple. Hard pass."

Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., indicated that high minimum wages box young people out of the job market.

REPUBLICAN LAWMAKERS PUSH TO ABOLISH ‘UNCONSTITUTIONAL’ ATF

"So many of our youth have lost the opportunity to enter the workforce due to high minimum wage requirements. High taxes, insurance, and paid leave requirements are a few of many issues as well. Small business owners are unable to invest in first-time workers or provide them with skills training for their future," she tweeted.

"Great points!" Massie replied.

He has previously suggested that the U.S. should nix the federal income tax entirely.

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"The federal income tax was unconstitutional for most of our [country's] existence. The founders of this country would have never agreed to it. We should repeal it," he tweeted in February 2024.

Massie has also spoken out against foreign aid.

"My position of ‘no foreign aid’ might sound extreme to some, but it’s far more extreme to force future generations of Americans into indentured servitude to our foreign creditors," he noted in a 2023 post.

President Trump is back in Nevada on Saturday to thank his supporters for helping him win the state, which has traditionally supported Democrats for president over the last couple of decades.

Trump will wrap up his first trip of his second administration with a rally Saturday afternoon in Las Vegas.

"I’m going to Nevada, and I’m really going to thank Nevada for the vote because we won Nevada," Trump said at the White House earlier this week. "That’s normally a Democratic vote and I just want to go there to thank Nevada for the vote."

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Trump carried Nevada by three points in November's presidential election after narrowly losing the Silver State in 2016 and 2020. He became the first Republican presidential nominee to win the state in 20 years, since then-President George W. Bush carried the state in his 2004 re-election.

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The president is expected to offer details on his campaign trail promise - which he first made during a rally in Las Vegas last June - to exclude tips from federal taxes.

"Can you remember that little statement about tips?" the president said during one of his inauguration day speeches. "Anybody remember that little statement? I think we won Nevada because of that statement."

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, aboard Air Force One on Friday, told reporters the rally in Las Vegas would have "an economy focused message."

"President Trump will be talking about promises that he intends to keep, that he made to the American people on the campaign trail," she added.

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The economy in Nevada's two largest cities - Las Vegas and Reno - is dominated by the hospitality and service industry. And many workers - from restaurant waiters to hotel clerks and maids to car park valets - rely on tips for much of their income.

But exempting tips from federal taxes will require Congress to pass legislation, which won't be easy to accomplish.

But a bill to do just that - which was first introduced last summer - was re-introduced into the new 119th Congress earlier this month by Democratic Sen. Jackie Rosen of Nevada and Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas.

Trump arrived in Las Vegas on Friday night. The president's stop in Nevada follows Trump's trip to California on Friday where he toured the devastation of the Los Angeles fires with residents who were personally impacted, met with California Gov. Gavin Newsom, and participated in a roundtable with Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and other state officials.

FIRST ON FOX: A powerful, fiscally conservative political advocacy group is launching what it says is an eight-figure campaign to urge Congress "to protect prosperity" by renewing the sweeping tax cuts signed into law by President-elect Trump during his first administration.

Americans for Prosperity (AFP), the influential and deep-pocketed grassroots network founded by the billionaire Koch Brothers, is announcing that it's spending $20 million to launch a wide-ranging campaign to urge the extension of Trump's signature Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA).

The campaign, which includes an ad blitz starting this week in all 50 states, was shared first with Fox News on Monday.

"Americans must unite and tell Washington now is not the time for higher taxes. By extending and improving the Trump tax cuts, we can make America more affordable, create greater opportunity, and reignite the American dream," the narrator in one of the AFP ads argues.

TRUMP DETAILS STRATEGY TO RENEW HIS TAX CUTS

The 2017 law revised the nation's tax code and gave a financial break to nearly all taxpayers. Many of the provisions are scheduled to expire at the end of this year, which would likely result in a tax increase for many Americans if Congress is unable to pass legislation to extend the cuts.

AFP says Congress is "facing a countdown to crisis that threatens the family budgets of virtually every American."

The group also said that millions of Americans will pay an extra $1,500 or more next year in taxes if the cuts are not extended. 

AFP President and CEO Emily Seidel, highlighting that her group worked alongside Trump to pass the tax cuts last decade, called them the most pro-growth tax reform in American history.

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"Renewing the TCJA must be a top priority so we can ensure this historic achievement continues to fuel decades of economic prosperity – and AFP is fully committed to mobilizing millions of people to ensure it gets done," Seidel told Fox News in a statement.

AFP Vice President of Government Affairs Akash Chougule argued that the expiration of the tax cuts would "result in crippling tax increases for millions of families," but "by extending and improving on the TCJA, we can make America more affordable, create greater opportunity, and reignite the American dream."   

The group, and its aligned political wing, has a wide-ranging grassroots network across the country that it touts has reached nearly 30 million voters the past two years.

AFP says it will once again activate its grassroots army "to ensure pro-growth tax reform is Congress’ top priority" through "calls to lawmakers, community phone banks, and 20,000 contacts at constituent doors planned in February alone."

The group says its campaign will also include more than 1,000 meetings at congressional offices, in-district events with their activists, roundtables with job creators and "shared testimonials from real American families and businesses who would suffer if Congress fails to renew the Trump tax cuts."

Also being utilized: op-eds at the national and state levels, TV and radio interviews, direct mail efforts and AFP's highly visible podcast.           

During his campaign last year to win back his old job in the White House, Trump repeatedly pledged to extend his tax cuts. 

No Democrats voted for the original tax cuts, which passed when Republicans controlled both houses of Congress, as they do once again. 

While GOP House and Senate leaders are prioritizing extending the tax cuts, the massive price tag for extending them, which would likely even further balloon the nation's $2 trillion deficit, is sparking divisions among congressional Republicans.

While AFP had its differences with Trump during his first administration, it was a major supporter of his tax cuts as well as his bipartisan criminal justice reform law.

But the group's political wing, which has long backed fiscally conservative causes and candidates, endorsed and supported Trump rival Nikki Haley in late 2023 as the 2024 GOP presidential nomination race got started. Haley was the last remaining rival to Trump, but after she ended her White House bid, AFP Action, the group's political, wing concentrated its political efforts on down-ballot races.

New York lawmakers called for the governor-appointed chairman of the New York City transit system to be fired amid accusations he downplayed a rash of subway crime to praise new Manhattan tolls that are aimed at driving commuters underground.

In comments on a Bloomberg podcast, MTA Chairman Janno Lieber argued that crime on the MTA has declined and that the recent viral incidents are giving an impression of a system-wide safety crisis.

"The overall stats are positive. Last year, we [had] actually 12.5% less crime than 2019 . . . , " he said.

"But there's no question that some of these high-profile incidents; terrible attacks, have gotten in people's heads and made the whole system feel less safe." 

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Rep. Michael Lawler, R-N.Y., shared a clip of Lieber ceremonially unveiling one of the new "Congestion Pricing" setups near Lincoln Center and said the agency "needs an enema; starting with Janno Lieber."

"Imagine being such an a--hole as to celebrate screwing New Yorkers out of their hard-earned money just for the privilege to drive to work," Lawler wrote, adding that Hochul "needs to be defeated in 2026."

Lieber ripped Lawler in response, telling MSNBC that the Rockland County lawmaker was dabbling in "grievance politics."

Lieber claimed that a plurality of Lawler’s constituents – in bedroom communities 30 miles north of the city – already rely on mass transit and that only "one percent" make the daily drive down the Palisades to the "congestion-pricing" zone.

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New York’s new $9 toll to enter any part of Manhattan below Central Park has enraged commuters, as well as residents within its bounds.

Commuters from Long Island found themselves bottlenecked in trying to access the last unaffected entry to Manhattan – the Upper Level of the Queensboro Bridge.

One East Side luxury building's exit also unintentionally forced residents through a toll gantry, even if they are trying to go uptown; away from the zone, while outer neighborhoods braced for a deluge of suburbanites looking for parking to avoid the toll.

New York Senate Deputy Minority Leader Andrew Lanza, R-Staten Island, torched Lieber:

"Janno: pull your head out of your piles of statistics, get out from behind your computer, and walk a mile in your riders’ shoes before you ignore, dismiss and insult them," Lanza said.

"The people of this state and city deserve the truth and real solutions, not eggheads trying to convince themselves they’re doing a good job."

Sen. Bill Weber of Valley Cottage added: "Albany Democrats claim congestion pricing is to reduce traffic congestion, but at what cost? It punishes everyday people—working parents, firefighters, seniors going to doctor's appointments, and those who already struggle to make ends meet."

"For them, this isn’t just a toll; it’s another obstacle in their daily lives. Tell me, how is that progressive?" he asked.

Sen. Steve Rhoads of Nassau previously quipped that the MTA’s acronym stands for "Money Thrown Away" and said this week that his constituents who rely on trains like the LIRR have grown distrustful of the agency.

"[Lieber] has no idea what it is to be a working-class New Yorker," Rhoads said. "While affordability and safety are huge concerns for real people, they are abstract concepts for him."

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Lieber was previously an executive at Silverstein Properties — recently overseeing a World Trade Center project — a transportation adviser to President Bill Clinton and Mayor Ed Koch, and a journalist for the New Republic. 

He was also the MTA’s capital development officer under Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

Cuomo, who still strongly supports the congestion pricing plan, recently told Fox News Digital through a spokesman that he, however, has reservations about whether now is the right time to activate the tolls – given the lack of confidence in subway safety and changes in the city since the COVID-19 pandemic.

"It is undeniable that New York is in a dramatically different place today than it was in 2019, and without a study forecasting its consequences based on facts, not politics, it could do more harm than good to New York City's recovery," Cuomo spokesman Rich Azzopardi said last week.

State Sen. Alexis Weik, R-Suffolk, called the video of Lieber’s Broadway sign-reveal "a despicable show of glee and greed" and called for a financial review board to scrutinize the transit agency’s books.

In response to the slew of calls for Lieber's ouster, MTA Chief of Policy & External Relations John J. McCarthy defended the transit boss.

"Under Chair Lieber’s leadership, the MTA has added service, opened new terminals and provided record on-time performance for their constituents on Long Island and the Hudson Valley, while delivering the most reliable subway service in a dozen years," McCarthy said.

"But apparently, none of that prevents out-of-touch politicians from bloviating."

Washington state Democrats appeared to have accidentally emailed their sweeping revenue plans and internal talking points on tax hikes to the entirety of the upper chamber's members in Olympia, Fox News has learned.

Property tax hikes and a new double-digit tax on firearms are among proposals Washington state Democrats are considering, according to materials originally disseminated to all members by Washington Senate Deputy Floor Leader Noel Frame, D-Seattle, in late December and later obtained by Fox News Digital. 

A document titled "2025 Revenue Options" and a PowerPoint presentation describing how to talk to constituents in defense of the plan were included in the messages.

The document lists proposed figures for an 11% tax on ammunition and firearms, reclassifying storage unit rentals as a retail transaction and a lift on the property tax levy lid for certain Washingtonians.

A PowerPoint slide, highlighted by Seattle radio host Jason Rantz, described the "Best way to talk taxes" — with a chart of do’s and don’ts for lawmakers.

DEMOCRAT ATTORNEYS GENERAL PREPARE FOR LEGAL BATTLES WITH TRUMP

Do say: "Pay what they owe" — but Don’t say: "Tax the rich" or "pay their fair share" because "taxes aren’t a punishment," the graph read.

It also suggested using the terms "funding," "providing" and "ensuring" when describing the apparent benefits of tax hikes, rather than the term "investing in [X]."

"Avoid centering the tax or talking in vague terms about ‘the economy’ or ‘education.’"

One of the new proposals is that of a "capital assets ownership tax."

It is described as similar to property taxes, but instead would extend the real estate-type tax to holdings in stocks, bonds and other financial instruments.

"We can ensure that extremely wealthy Washingtonians are taxed on their assets just like middle-class families are already taxed on theirs," the slide reads.

Another line directs lawmakers to proverbially "identify the villain" that is blocking "progress" and lay out "how we can take action to solve the issue."

"We have an upside-down tax code that benefits big corporations and the wealthiest few, that was written 100 years ago and desperately needs an update for the 21st century. If we ensure Washington’s wealthiest pay what they truly owe in taxes, the rest of us will have what we need — like affordable health care, housing, and food."

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Rantz said in a column for MyNorthwest.com that the plans accidentally shared present a "direct contradiction" to promises from Democrats during the election cycle and lay out 10 total new taxes on residents.

"These proposals come at a time when the state has seen years of record revenue," Rantz said, going on to claim some of the "tax schemes" may also be unconstitutional.

He added that capital gains taxes actually discourage growth and potentially lead to reduced job opportunities for the same workers pro-tax Democrats claim to want to help.

One example he presented was the departure of Amazon founder Jeffrey Bezos from Washington state. Upon establishing his new Florida residency, one of America’s richest men saved about $1 billion in taxes that also no longer go toward funding the Evergreen State’s programs.

Rantz added that the Washington state Democratic electorate often decries the affordability crisis but then goes on to re-elect the same politicians that exacerbate it.

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Additionally, as Democratic Gov.-elect Robert Ferguson is set to take office later this month, State Rep. Travis Couture, R-Allyn, slammed outgoing Gov. Jay Inslee’s 2025 budget proposal.

"This budget is not a serious proposal," said Couture, the House budget panel’s top Republican.

"Our state has a spending problem, not a revenue problem," he said.

Fox News Digital has reached out to Frame for comment but did not hear back by publication time.

In the 1942 film "Holiday Inn," legendary crooner Bing Crosby describes the stroke of midnight on New Year’s as "one minute to say goodbye before we say hello." In 2025, Americans in several states around the country are "saying hello" to many new laws and changes in tax codes.

In West Virginia, for example, residents saw an automatic 2% personal income tax cut taking effect on New Year's Day.

"If anybody says there’s something [else] that could drive more growth to West Virginia than that, you’re out of your mind," outgoing Republican governor and Sen.-elect Jim Justice quipped of that particular policy change.

However, other states’ residents may face more proverbially "draconian" policies and regulations. Here's a look at some of them.

"Congestion pricing"

The Empire State’s heavily-debated congestion pricing law will take effect on Sunday, Jan. 5. 

While Gov. Kathy Hochul and MTA Chair Janno Lieber have been supportive of the change, which charges the average driver crossing or entering Manhattan below Central Park a photo-enforced $9 toll, many New Yorkers remain outraged.

HOCHUL SPURS BIPARTISAN OUTRAGE OVER CONGESTION PRICING

"Congestion pricing, the latest in a long string of tyrannical taxes, has been pressed forward through consistent opposition about the burden on New York families and workers," several New York Republican federal lawmakers wrote in a December letter.

Meanwhile, Democrats like State Sen. Andrew Gounardes of Bay Ridge had urged the congestion-pricing plan to begin "immediately, before [Donald] Trump can block it."

Lather up

Visitors to one of the most popular tourism states in the country will no longer be welcomed by travel-sized shampoo and lotion bottles, as they will be prohibited come the New Year. 

The Empire State's ban took effect on Jan. 1, while a similar ban in Illinois goes into practice on July 1 for larger hotels and Jan. 1, 2026, for smaller ones.

While many hotels across the country have transitioned to affixing bulk shampoo dispensers into shower walls, many tourists still prefer the tiny bottles.

Tax hikes

California’s SB-951 of 2022 stipulated that workers will have slightly more money withheld from their paychecks in 2025. The state’s disability insurance program rate is to increase from 1.1% to 1.2%.

The average California worker will see $8 less per month in their net pay.

Gas prices

California Republicans estimated that new regulations taking effect in the New Year will cause "major sticker shock" for drivers in the Golden State.

"I’m concerned Californians will … be unprepared for the rapid gas spike in 2025, which could be an additional 90 cents per gallon," said state Senate Minority Leader Brian Jones.

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Jones estimated Californians will pay $900 more over the course of the year for gasoline.

Parental rights

AB-1955, or the SAFETY Act, took effect Jan. 1.

The law prohibits schools from enacting policies that require parental notification if their child changes their gender identity.

In December remarks to FOX-11, bill sponsor Assemblyman Chris Ward said "politically motivated attacks on the rights, safety, and dignity of transgender, nonbinary and other LGBTQ+ youth are on the rise nationwide, including in California."

Ward, D-San Diego, said school districts had wrongly adopted policies to "forcibly out" students and that parents should love their children unconditionally in all cases.

Immigrant health insurance coverage requirements

A 2022 bill relating to health insurance coverage for Coloradans regardless of immigration status will take effect next month, according to the Denver Post.

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HB-1289 requires the state to provide "full health insurance coverage for Colorado pregnant people who would be eligible for Medicaid and the children's basic health plan (CHIP) if not for their immigration status and continues that coverage for 12 months postpartum at the CHIP federal matching rate," according to the bill text.

Abortion

As of July 2025, Delaware colleges will be required to provide emergency abortion access and contraception or direct the patient to an external facility, according to the Wilmington News-Journal.

A law is also primed to take effect in the First State that mandates insurance coverage and eliminates deductibles for abortion procedures, according to multiple reports.

State Sen. Bryant Richardson, R-Blades, ripped the new law after it passed the legislature earlier in 2024.

"This is a procedure you want my tax dollars to pay for. I’m sorry, I think this is evil," he said.

Stop light

Washington, D.C., will institute a ban on right-turns-on-red within District boundaries. The law is a rare regulation in a blanket context, with New York City being one of the few other major cities with a similar law.

Signage denoting the otherwise tacit law is typically posted when entering New York City from highways like Major Deegan or one of the city's many river crossings, but it is often lacking on the hundreds of small streets on the grid that traverse into Westchester or Nassau Counties.

In the same vein, the District of Columbia reportedly lacks funding for signage on most of the streets entering the nation’s capital from Maryland or Virginia, which may or may not affect enforcement, according to reports.

The $385,000 in district funds allocated to notifying residents and drivers of the law was never identified, a DDOT official told WTTG.

Bird watch

D.C.’s Migratory Local Wildlife Protection Act of 2023 imposes a new building restriction as of Jan. 1.

Permit applications or glazing alterations will require bird-friendly materials on exterior walls and fenestration within 100 feet of grade level, according to WTTG.

The district is also one of a handful of places where the sales tax will see an increase. In the capital’s case, it will rise to 6.5%.

Firearms

Minnesota will institute a ban on "binary triggers" on personally owned weapons, according to reports. That is, the function that allows a gun to fire multiple rounds with one press of the trigger.

Vaping ban

The Ocean State is set to enact a ban on sales of and possession-with-intent-to-sell flavored vape products in 2025. The law is currently facing litigation but will be able to preliminarily go into effect, according to the Providence Journal.

Global warming

Vermont’s Global Warming Solutions Act, which initiates limits on greenhouse gas emissions, will take effect in the New Year.

It requires a 26% reduction in 2025 emissions reduction versus 2005 levels, according to the Vermont Public.

The law, however, also opens the state up to legal action from green groups and more if it fails to reach the required reduction level. 

That aspect led Republicans to question the new law. Gov. Phil Scott vetoed the bill in 2020, saying it does not propose or create a good framework for "long-term mitigation and adaptation solutions to address climate change."

Meanwhile, Vermont Republican Party Chair Paul Dame recently said it opens up the state and taxpayers’ money to undue risk from such lawsuits.

"These goals were unattainable given the currently available technology, but now the state is getting dragged in to court for completely avoidable reasons," Dame told Fox News Digital.

No coal in your stocking

Oregon’s HB-4083 will direct the state onto a path toward divesting in coal firms and market instruments that include coal interests.

The laws that weren't

With many states, like those above, enacting tax hikes, new regulations and the like, Republicans in states with divided government are expressing cautious optimism that their trend of bucking liberal legislative interests can continue.

While Vermont’s Scott has seen key vetoes like the Global Warming Solutions Act overridden by the Democrat-dominated legislature, some states have the opposite dynamic where a Republican-majority chamber stymies the goals of Democrats.

With the state Senate in Republican hands, the State House one vote short of a 50-50 split and the governorship held by Democrats, Republicans expressed relief that legislation such as a 100% carbon-neutral 2050 Clean Energy Standard did not make it to Gov. Josh Shapiro’s desk.

In the gun control realm, both an assault weapons ban and proposed repeal of the state Stand Your Ground Law drafted by state Sen. Steve Santarsiero, D-Bristol, died in the legislature.

"It is time we take an evidence-based approach to our gun policy. ‘Stand Your Ground’ laws encourage gun violence. As such, it is time that we repeal ‘Stand Your Ground’ here in Pennsylvania," Santarsiero said in a memo.

Another bill enacting a firearms "Red Flag Law" languished through the legislative term.

A policy that would fund cost-free telephone calls from state prisoners also did not make it through, as did a bid for an "abortion protection package."

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Those and several other top-line "draconian" bill failures are a product of GOP persistence, said state Sen. Doug Mastriano, R-Gettysburg.

"With a Democrat governor and Democrat House, the state Senate is the last line of reason to prevent Pennsylvania from becoming like California," the 2022 Republican gubernatorial nominee told Fox News Digital on Monday.

"There has been a litany of extreme legislation coming from Democrats."

As chair of the Emergency Preparedness committee, Mastriano added that the "most egregious" no-pass in 2024 was legislation to address Pennsylvanian effects from the biohazardous East Palestine, Ohio, train derailment.

Mastriano, along with state Sens. Elder Vogel Jr., R-Beaver, and Michele Brooks, R-Pymatuning, drafted legislation in July to exempt disaster relief payments from state taxes in one case.

That bill did not make it out of the legislature.

Republicans in the state also lamented the failure of the latest effort to withdraw Pennsylvania from a national "RGGI" Greenhouse Gas pact entered into by former Gov. Tom Wolf.

"Leaving our environmental and economic destiny to the whims of RGGI’s New England states is just bad policy for Pennsylvania," State Sen. Gene Yaw, R-Williamsport, said after the Senate approved the eventually-failed bill.

"It is time to repeal this regulation and focus on putting forth commonsense, environmentally responsible energy policy that recognizes and champions Pennsylvania as an energy producer."

"Pennsylvania’s greatest asset is our ability to produce energy," State Senate Majority Leader Kim Ward, R-Latrobe, added in a statement.

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Minimum wage hikes are also primed to take effect in several states.

Washington, Connecticut and California are set to see $16 per hour or higher as the minimum wage for most workers. Rhode Island's will rise to $15, Maine's to $14.65, Illinois to $15 and Vermont will go to $14.

More than a dozen states, including Wyoming, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Utah, Tennessee and Mississippi, retain the federal minimum wage of $7.25.