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- cross-posted to:
- [email protected]
Gov. Gavin Newsom on Friday suggested California consider withholding tens of billions in annual federal tax dollars amid reports Donald Trump is preparing funding cuts targeting the state.
Newsom’s suggestion came after CNN reported the president was considering a “full termination” of federal grant funding for California’s universities.
“Californians pay the bills for the federal government. We pay over $80 BILLION more in taxes than we get back,” the Democratic governor said in an X post Friday afternoon, referencing a recent analysis from the Rockefeller Institute that California contributed about $83 billion more in federal taxes in 2022 than it received back from Washington.
“Maybe it’s time to cut that off,” he added.
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As predicted he will counter threatened and as is should. Blue states essentially fund the red states. Let’s see if the red states will survive without the wealthier Democratic states’ funding.
Newsom is as republican as the last republican governor, and he definitely wants to kill the homeless more. Don’t hold your breath. He just wants to be talked about so he can have a failed run for president in 2028.
And then a few A-10s take out San Francisco.
Newsom doesn’t have the balls. This is all just posturing.
There is no mechanism for California to simply “cut off” funds from California citizens to the federal government. The IRS collects tax money directly. How exactly are you going to “cut off” these flows?
Really, the only way to do it would be:
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Newsom announces that Californians don’t need to pay federal income taxes, and that the state of California will directly protect its citizens from the federal government.
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Encourage and teach California citizens how to set their federal tax withholding to zero and encourage California businesses to do the same.
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Order California troops and law enforcement to throw all federal law enforcement out of the state at gunpoint.
That’s what this would actually take. The feds have way more guns than any citizen can resist. The only actual way for California to stop the feds from taxing their citizen would be to directly protect the citizens of California from tax prosecution by the IRS. And that would require physically expelling federal law enforcement agents from the state. And that would likely require shooting a fair number of them.
There’s no way to do this without starting a civil war. And something tells me a moderate like Newsom can’t even process the idea of having the state actually secede from the union. Is a Republican-lite like Newsom going to order California law enforcement to kill IRS and ICE agents? In what universe do you see that happening?
This is all just rhetorical masturbation.
For private businesses sure, but Newsom has the authority to set up an escrow account and direct all state government entities to send their federal payroll taxes to the new account rather than to the IRS.
Rebuttal, he doesn’t actually need to stop paying the taxes, he just needs to nullify them.
- California’s port in LA brings in more goods than any other port in the country. They could collect the tariffs and federal dues and not remit them to the federal government
- Likewise, they could collect a fee for all agricultural goods coming from every other state leaving the port.
- California is the nation’s fruit and vegetable basket. He could impose a tax on all ag products leaving the state.
- He could seize all federal buildings in the state as collateral.
- Ever heard of the La Brea tar pits? California is an oil rich state. He could pull a page from DTs playbook and seize the mineral rights.
- If he was really ballsy, he could seize the naval base in San Diego.
I’m mean all of that is equally as drastic and civil war inducing.
Not saying that’s a bad thing, but doubt Newsome would
I get it, but realize each of those things is equally as direct as ordering federal law enforcement out of the state. Taxing exports from the state? A flagrant violation of the Constitution. That would be a direct challenge to a main federal power. California decides to start charging an export tax at its borders. They set up tariff stations and start taxing ag exports. That is a violation of federal law, so the feds will have to step in to stop the California customs agents. Now you’re right back to having state and federal agents pointing guns at each other. Alternatively, the courts will order California to stop, and California will refuse to comply. At that point, the federal marshals are directed to arrest California officials for contempt of court. Now state and federal law enforcement are pointing guns at each other.
How about tariffs at the ports? It’s the feds that collect those tariffs, not state agencies. If you want the state of California to take over those duties, you’re going to have to send in state troops and force the federal customs agents at gunpoint.
Seizing federal buildings and military bases? Again, that’s just doing a Battle of Fort Sumter.
Seizing mineral rights? The feds license oil companies to drill for oil on federal land. If you want the state to interrupt that, then they’ll need to occupy those lands themselves. Or, they would have to provide armed protection to oil companies that decided to not pay the federal license fees.
These are all the same problem. The federal government doesn’t need California’s cooperation to collect any of its revenues. The only way for California to interrupt the feds is to send angry men with big guns to directly stop federal officials from performing their duties. There is in practice no way to directly usurp federal taxation or power in California without just starting a civil war. The feds do not need Newsom’s cooperation. If Newsom wants to stop the feds, he’ll have to send in armed men to start shooting federal agents.
I’m not saying this would be a good or bad thing. Frankly, the situation at the federal government is so bad, that we would probably be better off just dissolving the whole country at this point. Independence for all, let states form whatever new nations they want.
But what I’m really trying to do here is provide a reality check. Unless Newsom is actually prepared to order the killing federal officials, any talk of stopping tax flows, seizing federal assets, etc. is just self-indulgent bravado. And I just do not think Newsom is the type of man to go down that road.
Not paying taxes is breaking federal law. He has already threatened that so I don’t see why doing a slightly different but more actionable law breaking would be off the table.
- If you set your taxes to 0, you are asking them to fully tax you like a single person without children…
Set tax withholding to zero. Ie, set up your withholding so nothing is withheld. Have zero taken out of your paycheck by claiming a large number of deductions, or claim to be otherwise exempt from withholding. You can absolutely and legally do this. You can make it so that nothing is withheld from your paycheck. You’ll just have quite a hefty tax bill due come tax time. In this case, Newsom would be telling California residents that the state will prevent the feds from ever coming to collect that bill.
Set their withholding to zero, not set their deductions to zero.
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No taxation without representation.
I’m claiming that one now. High seas shit.
Man I really don’t want to root for Newsom.
Don’t worry, he’ll fold like a lawn chair. But he just wants us to know that he’s seriously considering it.
Do it.
Cascadia and the Republic of California when?
So I can do that too?
You can at least move states, California can’t move countries or declare independence (yet).
I’m down for a WA OR CA break.
Orwaca?
Cascadia
Sure, give it a try
If we all do it at once….
