Dems Refuse to Stand for Tax Cuts; Vance at Border: “From 1,500 a Day to 30 — Just Empower Border Patrol”

A compilation from March 6, 2025, captured two striking contrasts. During the joint address, Democrats remained seated when Trump called for “no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, and no tax on Social Security benefits for our great seniors” — policies that directly benefited working-class Americans. The following day, VP JD Vance visited the southern border and reported that crossings in the area had plummeted “from about 1,500 a day to 30 a day,” saying Border Patrol officers told him “all we needed to do was empower these guys to do their job.” Vance also described seeing border wall sections from Trump’s first term that “Joe Biden wouldn’t let us actually build.”

Democrats Sit on Tax Cuts

The joint address footage captured a moment that crystallized the Democratic Party’s political problem. Trump stood before Congress and proposed three specific tax relief measures for working Americans.

“I’m calling for no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, and no tax on Social Security benefits for our great seniors,” Trump said.

The proposals targeted three of the most common forms of working-class and retirement income. Tips affected millions of service workers — waitresses, bartenders, hotel staff, hairdressers. Overtime pay affected factory workers, construction workers, nurses, and other hourly employees who worked extra shifts. Social Security affected every senior citizen in the country.

As Trump made the proposal, Democrats remained in their seats. The visual was politically catastrophic: the party that claimed to represent working people was refusing to stand for the elimination of taxes on tips, overtime, and Social Security. The Republican side rose to applaud; the Democratic side stayed down.

The moment was seized upon by the White House communications team as definitive evidence that Democrats were more interested in opposing Trump than in supporting the Americans they claimed to represent. If a Democrat could not stand for eliminating taxes on a waitress’s tips, what exactly were they willing to stand for?

Vance at the Border: “From 1,500 to 30”

The day after the joint address, VP Vance traveled to the southern border to see the results of the administration’s enforcement policies firsthand. His report included one of the most dramatic local statistics of the border enforcement campaign.

“We took the helicopter ride over here and we saw a big chunk of border wall,” Vance said. “And I said, ‘Is that the federal government’s border wall?’ And they said, ‘Well, it was ordered during the first Trump administration, but Joe Biden wouldn’t let us actually build it.’”

He credited Texas Governor Greg Abbott for filling the gap: “Governor Abbott of course was the one who actually helped us put a lot of that stuff up, and of course that stopped the flow in a pretty profound way.”

Vance then delivered the local crossing statistics. “We’ve seen, I think just in this area, border crossings go from about 1,500 a day to 30 a day,” he said.

The reduction from 1,500 to 30 — a 98% decline — in a single border sector was even more dramatic than the national statistics. It meant that a stretch of border that had been processing thousands of illegal crossings daily was now seeing fewer than three dozen.

Vance attributed the change to a single factor: “That’s simply the President of the United States empowering these professionals to do what they do so well."

"All We Needed Was to Empower These Guys”

Vance reinforced Trump’s message from the previous night’s address with the authority of someone who had just spoken with the officers on the ground.

“As you saw, the President said yesterday — I think it’s maybe the most important part of his speech — that we didn’t need new laws to secure the border,” Vance said. “We needed a new president, and thank God we have that.”

He then provided the testimonial from Border Patrol that validated the claim. “I’ve heard already from a number of the folks that I’ve talked to in Border Patrol that all we needed to do was empower these guys to do their job,” Vance said. “Thank God they have done their job. We’re thrilled that they’ve done it.”

The Border Patrol officers’ own words — “all we needed was to be empowered to do our job” — was the most powerful rebuttal to the Biden-era argument that new legislation was required. The officers who patrolled the border every day were saying that the laws were sufficient; what had been insufficient was the political will to enforce them.

The word “empower” was significant. Under Biden, Border Patrol agents had been effectively ordered to facilitate illegal crossings through the catch-and-release process rather than prevent them. Under Trump, the same agents were authorized to detain, deport, and deter. The difference was not legal authority but presidential direction.

The Unbuilt Wall

Vance’s helicopter tour had revealed a physical monument to the Biden administration’s obstruction. Wall sections that had been ordered and contracted during Trump’s first term were sitting on the border — but had never been erected because Biden had halted construction on his first day in office.

The image of pre-fabricated wall panels sitting unused on the border while thousands of people crossed illegally each day was one of the most vivid illustrations of the Biden border policy’s deliberate nature. The government had paid for the wall materials. The materials had been delivered to the border. And then a presidential order had prevented them from being installed — a decision that cost taxpayers money for unused construction while simultaneously allowing the invasion the wall was designed to prevent.

Abbott’s decision to build state-funded barriers in the absence of federal action had been one of the defining acts of the border crisis, placing Texas in direct confrontation with the Biden administration. Vance’s acknowledgment of Abbott’s role was both a diplomatic courtesy and a recognition that state action had been necessary to compensate for federal abdication.

Democrats Remain Seated for Abbey Gate

The compilation also included footage from the joint address showing Democrats remaining seated during Trump’s announcement that the Abbey Gate bomber had been captured and was being brought to face justice.

The refusal to stand for the capture of an ISIS terrorist who had killed 13 American service members was, if anything, more difficult to justify than the refusal to stand for tax cuts. The capture was not a partisan policy proposal — it was the apprehension of a mass murderer who had killed American troops. Celebrating the arrest required no endorsement of Trump’s broader agenda; it required only basic respect for the service members who had died and the families who had mourned them.

Key Takeaways

• Democrats remained seated when Trump proposed no tax on tips, overtime, and Social Security, creating a visual of the party refusing to support working-class tax relief.
• VP Vance reported from the border that crossings in the local sector had dropped “from about 1,500 a day to 30 a day” — a 98% reduction.
• Border Patrol officers told Vance “all we needed to do was empower these guys to do their job,” confirming no new legislation was needed.
• Vance saw unbuilt border wall sections from Trump’s first term that “Joe Biden wouldn’t let us actually build,” crediting Governor Abbott for filling the gap with state-funded barriers.
• Democrats also remained seated during the announcement of the Abbey Gate bomber’s capture.