Newsom floats withholding federal taxes as Trump threatens California
Newsom floats withholding federal taxes as Trump threatens California
www.politico.com
Just a moment...
Newsom is shitty but THIS IS THE WAY!!!
93 comments
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See, when people say Democrats need to start DOING things to push back against Trump, this is what they're talking about.
Is this a foolproof idea? Probably not. Could it backfire? Possibly. Will it really help? If it makes the admin second-guess what it can get away with, yeah, that's helpful. This is the energy we need. Stop playing softball with these fascists.
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He literally hasnt done anything. More talk, no action, what's new?
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"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."
So if Newsome cuts off the flow, it's not just the $83B overage, it's everything + $83B.
California is, what? 13th largest economy in the world? 11th?
Whoah... 4th. Just ahead of Japan and behind Germany:
https://www.gov.ca.gov/2025/04/23/california-is-now-the-4th-largest-economy-in-the-world/
US and China being #1 and 2.
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Texas is the 8th largest economy in the world.
that blew my mind recently.
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I'm too lazy to verify my hunch, but I'm guessing Texas is largely oil (exploiting natural resources), whereas California is largely intellectual output (tech, with some Hollywood and other sundry stuff), though California certainly does exploit its natural resources too (good farming conditions, some oil...).
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It’s all oil.
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4th largest.
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You know? It really begs the question:
What's preventing conservative states from being able to pay for their own social programs and infrastructure?
Is it liberal states absorbing all the wealth so that the conservative states can't grow? Is it that being conservative is actually really really bad for the economy? Maybe they just never recovered from having slavery taken away and refused to adapt. Because there's definitely something going on...
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When a State actually takes care of it's citizens, it becomes a better place to live and start businesses. That attracts and creates better educated and more affluent people, which makes it a better place to live and do business. People flee the poorer states for a better chance at success in the liberal state. Repeat this for a century or so and that's how conservative states become shitholes and liberal states (and countries) are much better off.
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Personally, I think climate has a lot to do with it. Texas overcomes their climate because of oil, but look at the bottom 10 GDP states compared to the top 10:
Top 10:
California
Texas
New York
Florida
Illinois
Pennsylvania
Ohio
Georgia
Washington
New JerseyYou're going to boil your ass working in Texas, Florida, and Georgia. Oil makes it worth it in Texas. Agriculture, aerospace and defense in Georgia, apparently. Tourism in Florida.
Bottom 10:
West Virginia
Delaware
Maine
Rhode Island
Montana
North Dakota
South Dakota
Alaska
Wyoming
Vermont1/2 of this list is known for brutal cold. I think all Rhode Island produces is commuters to New York. LOL.
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That jerk is just going to make Musk their fascist king
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Newsom is the King of awful neoliberalism. If the tech oligarchs demand fascism we'll get fascism in California too. You're not wrong. But Musk has proven himself to be a useless child. That's not how things would go. The ruling class isn't that stupid. That's why Trump kicked him out. Use him as tool? Absolutely. But Musk is basically political poison. But then again, the Democrats have been so incompetent they might actually try to work with him publicly.
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This is the first stage of sedition.
The US is literally about to become divided. The DSA
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Based
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Considering how Trump is gutting the IRS I wonder why I’m paying federal taxes.
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So people with more money than you don't have to?
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If you don’t want to support trump’s federal government, you don’t have to.
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I know someone that hasn't paid their taxes in years and they've yet to face consequences. I genuinely do wonder if the IRS has the capability to enforce tax collection atm.
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Can someone explain how this would work? When I work a job and they withhold money from my check, they then pay that withheld money along with the matching taxes paid by the business directly to the federal government, don't they? Would the state just order the businesses to send the money to them instead? If my tax dollars don't get sent to the fed, wouldn't the IRS still come after me to pay them?
Don't get me wrong, I'm all for it. I just don't understand the mechanics of how it would work.
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Just declare that jobs within the state no longer collect it, and provide a hotline to identify employers who don't comply. It's not like the IRS has the people to manage federal enforcement.
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Damn. Sounds exactly like a way to boost small businesses profits as they steal taxes they won't pay. This type of policy can't be left to the businesses and a phone line. Just saying. It needs to be collected by the state imo. Placed into state Medicaid, Medicare, or a new universal healthcare plan for California.
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One way would be the actual taxes paid on state, county, and municipal employee salaries. That's going to represent a large source of federal taxes that the state could divert. I'm sure there are other taxes paid by the state that could be withheld.
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They can't stop the fed from collecting taxes on individuals or businesses. State agencies, maybe, but even then. Individuals get taxed by the fed.
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They could probably pass a law that companies within California pay taxes to the fed through an escrow account held by the state, pass the data through so if nothing crazy happens, it doesn't really affect anybody, and get enough companies to comply that Trump would back down.
The courts would eventually decide whether or not it was legal, but by then Trump will have moved off to another target to performatively attack while pretending to help people who aren't multi-millionaires while siphoning their money instead.
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Can someone explain how this would work?
I think to pull this off California would need to enact some sort of large state tax and then offer tax rebates. Then California could capture the money before it's sent to the fed.
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I'd be fine if the west coast joined Canada somehow. I realize it's probably unrealistic and impossible, but one can dream.
Source: Live on the west coast.
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I'd rather be an independent republic, with all the regions in California becoming states of this new country. And the new constitution must be made so that we don't have neglect of vast areas of our country, just like we currently have with the US constitution. Otherwise I can foresee far northern California and parts of the central valley becoming bitter right wing states which trample on individuals rights, just like all the red states of the current country.
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This Canadian doesn't want the added baggage of American guns, Jesus, and hubris.
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As a Canadian who lives on the US West Coast, I probably wouldn't have a hard time with that personally.
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This fucker needs to put his money where his mouth is. He has been too deferential to Trump so far.
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But that might UPSET Trump and we CANT have THAT!
-The DNC!
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How would CA even do this? Most of the taxes go from people to the feds without the state as an intermediary.
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Doge just gutted the irs. Who will collect?
CA could just offer an service to run the irs around in circles or even pay for your audit.
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Create an escrow account, and tell CA businesses that federal withholding goes there. Same with payments by individuals.
Maybe some won’t. But most probably will. Especially if you plan to tell them you’ll fund Medicare/aid and snap from it.
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where there is a will, there is a way.
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Are you saying Newsome is so smart and brave he risks checks notes putting individual constituents at risk?
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Only problem I see with this plan is the Mustard Mussolini's fox and friends would push the federal financial systems to cut off Californians from the banking network, effectively embargoing the state.
As much money as it has, it's not totally self sufficient.
Plan a bit first, get some other states to join in, and countries who are sick of Trump's shit to help supply.
Worst case is the president comes in with military, while the Cali national guard could be called up, technically they can be federalized, court battles, federal soldiers looking to arrest Newsom.
Cali, Washington, New York, New Jersey splitting though would be a hell of a blow, cripple shipping.
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National guard would be under the control of the president.
What you want is the State Guard (which is often trained by and shares members with the national guard.) the state guard cannot be coopted by the president. They answer only to the governor.
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That might break the statehood contract. Which would lead to repercussions. Which would lead to more repercussions...
As everybody involved well knows, of course.
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yes too bad something needs to be done. sick of the world clowning on us。 everything has repercussions
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Do it
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Just fucking do it. Put us out of our misery.
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Canadian Dollar works as alt currency
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California has a bigger economy than Canada. Don't think there's enough CAD$ to go around
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What does this even mean? Like W2 taxes go directly from employer to federal right? What kind of control can California actually do to stop monetary flow to the federal government?
93 comments