As tensions escalate between California and the Trump administration over immigration, another potential battlefront is emerging over taxes.
The spat began with reports that the Trump administration is considering cutting funding for California’s university system, the largest higher education system in the nation with about 12% of all U.S. enrolled students.
In response, Gov. Gavin Newsom wrote Friday afternoon in a social media post that California provides about $80 billion more in taxes to the federal government than it receives in return.
“Maybe it’s time to cut that off, @realDonaldTrump,” Newsom said.
My guess is that Newsom’s only angle would be to say “on X date, all state employee income tax withholdings will go into escrow.” Thats about a quarter million employees out of 20m people filing for taxes in CA.
Then the state would have to start coding and integrating that new system which - would be a HUGE pain in the ass. And while that was happening, this would likely be getting shut down by the SCOTUS.
Not trying to be a Debby downer for people that want to stick it to Trump. At first glance, it looks like leverage, but when you look closer, you see that Newsom can only control a small piece of the pie.
As Trump has shown, legality doesn’t matter if you can drag out the legislative process long enough. Clearly, California withholding taxes will be struck down by the courts, but the damage will be done if it can be dragged out long enough to disrupt the bond market even further than Taco already has.
Although some of his shit gets shut down pretty fast. Some of his immigration stuff got put on ice fast by the SOCTUS.
also depends how many other states follow suit, if any.
I think the bigger impact here is how it brings the tax imbalance into the conversation. Look at how effective that argument has been at fuelling Albertan separatism. It’s especially effective on Conservatives, who are absolutely suckers for anything that suggests they’re getting a bad deal. “We pay too much for too little” is something that he could easily get most of California to rally around.
By pushing this line, Newsom is driving a wedge between California and the US. I couldn’t possibly say whether he’s actually trying to fuel separatism, or simply gesturing at it as a threat, but that’s the implied danger here.
Honestly I fully expect it to just be saber rattling to drag it out until trump capitulates, which he almost always does when the going gets tough.
Newsom is a shoe-in for the democratic candidate for presidency in 2028, and his largely neoliberal policies combined with his charisma make him an obvious choice for the DNC. However I do think the DNC needs to try running a Midwestern Dem from a battleground state sometime because they can really break a lot of the caricatures that the GOP likes to paint on the national stage about Dems
CA is the forth largest economy; it would destroy the red state fuckheads if they stopped paying federal taxes. The rest of us follow suit and we defund the motherfuckers stinking up the government.
If you are sending our military against OUR OWN FUCKING PEOPLE we should not be PAYING FOR IT. My taxes don’t go to that fascist bullshit
🖕🤬🖕 Fuck drumpf and every bootlicker that got him (probably illegally) elected
MOTHERFUCKING DO IT
Stop bending the knee to a felon rapist traitor who uses the military to assault American citizens.
Stop providing welfare to failing red states who elect felon rapist traitors who target blue states.
Ok, this is an idea I had after reading numerous comments on this post. You’re all asking how this would work … hear me out.
California declares its own currency, the “California dollar”. Wages earned in California dollars wouldn’t be taxed like US Dollars.
There are some issues to work out; I think the IRS does tax your foreign assets … some … but I think that this scheme could work.
Economically, it would be an uphill battle. The US dollar is strong because it’s backed by decades of sound monetary policy (that will go right out the window when jerome powell’s tenure is up) and a AAA credit rating for treasury bonds (that will disappear when the Republicans in congress finally drive us off a cliff) . A Californian dollar would be untrustworthy for a while as its central bank would need time to build trust
What if they got into a monetary union with Canada and linked Calidollar with the Canadollar with the same value and entirely interchangeable the way the Belgian and Luxemburg franc used to work?
Soundish monetary policy. In the end it’s a fallacy that has never even been tried on a theoretical level. We just did it and people were like, ok. We’ve been kept afloat by monetary and military threats. The policy makes no sense on any level, that infinite debt is perfectly fine or normal.
Ain’t happening anyway
In just two days I got my answer.
Trumptard is really really really really trying to start a civil war. Amazing :/
Hasn’t actually happened yet though.
well it IS taco Tuesday
Cross posted to BoycottUnitedStates @ europe.pub
Hey, now we’re even boycotting ourselves!
…
More seriously:
Welp, I don’t see another option than lie down and roll over, but also, if Newsom actually does it, this will basically cause a civil war… or at best a ‘Russia is pacifying Chechen terrorists’ kind of situation.
Hope everyone has their popcorn / bugout bags ready.
Frankly I’d be surprised if anyone even does their taxes in this next cycle. Give dumpster nothing. Cut him off. Let congress figure out how their gonna pay the military and ICE and golf with their own dime to keep this shit up.
the govt doesn’t need money to spend it btw - this is how we got the national debt
this could affect something but not as much as youmight think
For people like me who have some savings and investments but don’t want to run afoul of the law - Just take a couple years off. I’m working part time to cover my cost of living, and I’m not investing. So minimizing what I pay in income tax and taxes on dividends.
I hope people reading this aren’t taking this advice seriously… The IRS will fuck you up. They have less funding, but that only means that they only go after low hanging fruit (AKA people who can’t afford a team of lawyers to fight). They’ll garnish your fucking wages.
Kinda crazy that the comment is so highly upvoted… I get the sentiment, but you’re giving people really bad advice here.
DOGE already scrapped the IRS
You think the IRS doesn’t exist anymore? You think that the federal government is just going to stop collecting taxes?
Lol.
Stop whining. She left you for Elon. And it’s entirely justified with how much of an asshole you are. Just think how big of a loser you are to make him the winner.
Nice try Steve miller. Go jump up your butt.
OK, go ahead and change your withholding to $0 and see what happens. Publicly announcing your intentions to stop paying federal taxes will definitely help as well.
I do zero withholding every year because I get a higher return by investing it. And I’ve been openly posting about tax resistance for years. It’d be a lot more realistic if my whole state was on board!
I meant “do zero withholding, and then don’t file taxes” as that was the implication.
I know what tax resistance is, I’m just talking about the (very real) consequences that people better be ready for if they take that advice.
Idk, the author of “Civil Disobedience” did it. It’s a valid resistance method, or just a way to keep yourself morally consistent. Every kind of resistance has a good chance of bringing harm to yourself.
I personally didn’t file one year; kinda just kept putting it off because I knew I wouldn’t be able to pay my taxes (was a 1099 worker, and suffered some major financial blows that year); nothing ever happened, but it definitely was a risk. I probably won’t do that as an “act of resistance” next year, but will probably try extending as long as possible.
I mean yeah, you can do it… But you’re going to accomplish literally nothing and there’s a good chance that it will cause you much distress.
Most people have their federal tax withheld by their employers and do their taxes in order to get back their overpayment. Are we all going to not do our taxes and leave that overpayment in the government’s coffers? Are employers going to stop doing the withholding? Neither scenario is very likely.
Go to HR. Ask for a W-4, change withholding to $0.
That’s only going to cause little people more problems as they get audited. The thought is nice but no way would the feds pass up the opportunity to ruin people’s lives for this.
And it’s not like withholding some tax revenues would have any effect on Republican spending. Despite their bullshit “fiscal conservatism” rhetoric, they’ve had no qualms whatsoever about running enormous deficits for more than half a century now. A tax strike would just produce more debt and give Republicans ammo to blame it all on Democrats.
They’ve actually run those deficits up very intentionally. If you aren’t familiar with the Two Santas Strategy, this is worth a read:
The IRS can change it back via a “lock in letter”.
Well it is a good thing then that DOGE fired the IRS
“Doing your taxes next cycle” just accounts for bonuses/corrections after reviewing taxes that had been paid through the year. It happens every paycheck.
Some people have very daringly chosen to withhold all taxes from each paycheck - there are legal reasons you might do this like “I plan to have a large tax write-off”, but without said reason, it’s very possible the IRS would come after you.
just fucking do it, you asshole.
It’s grandstanding…but it pisses off the Orange Turdburgler so I can’t complain too much.
stopping paying taxes is one of the essential elements of a “soft secession”, one where the state disintegrates from the federation, but not “all at once”, but “step by step”.
Maybe it was Trump’s plan after all to cause a number of states to secede? After all, GOP has talked about Texas’ secession for a while, iirc?
His plan to lose his most valuable states? Probably not. He’s just an idiot out of control.
Although, from a Russian perspective, that would be an ideal outcome. I’d put nothing past these traitorous criminals.
Project 2025 shows that the Republicans have at least one person with the ability to plan long term strategy.
I’m of the opinion that California, Oregon, and Washington should succeed and join Canada. Hell, New York and Massachusetts too if I’m indulging in this fantasy scenario.
All of new england pls
So private prison giant GEO group Donates heavily to Trump‘s campaign. Trump has ice indiscriminately pick people up for “deportation“ where they are sent to prisons run by GEO group. Concerned citizens protest ICE actions in California. Trump illegally deploys national guard without the consent of California’s government to attack law abiding citizens in California. Gavin Newsome, Liberal democrat and defender of capitalism, uses legal tactics to fight back against illegal activities. To me this act rings hollow. Please someone tell me what I am missing, because I would love to have a glimmer of hope these days.
I’m not sure how legal it is for CA to stop paying taxes. At the very least, it’s an attempt to attack where it hurts, which is in the money.
Technically trump’s presidency is illegal. But here we are.
Calexit is becoming less and less of a meme every day.
I’d be so God damn happy if we left this shithole nation. And opened up for refugees of the failed state of America.
But it’s what they want… It’s part of the plan… even just the idea to cause uncertainty and confusion… They want to enact material law… running is a choice but fighting fascist racist felon dictators is the only real choice and if they can delay the elections because of civil unrest or whatever bullshit they are trying…
California is basically its own country it has everything it needs… But you can’t fight trump like a politician… You have to play his game and beat him… He’s a bully and a coward… Saying we won’t pay taxes does nothing to protect the people on the streets
So what I’m hearing is… Deploy the Cali National guard to DC and Mar a Lago to defend Trump and the government from unrest in L.A.
I mean that would never happen but sounds like a good time
Trump does not give one rat fuck of an ass about the law. Why the fuck should anyone do anything for the federal government and pay taxes at this point?
If blue states were to band together and do this, it would bankrupt Trump’s fascist federal government pretty quickly. Maybe a blue state Articles of Confederation is in order.
California, Oregon, and Washington are all donor states that contribute a combined ~$160 billion more to the federal government than they get back each year. They also make up $3.1 trillion of the GDP, they have all mainland west coast ports, and they’re major agricultural states. They’d honestly be better off if they banded together to Bugs Bunny off.
There’s a bigger thing people tend to forget: shipping ports. There aren’t a lot of natural harbors on the west coast of North America. California has three of them (LA, Long Beach, San Fransisco) and Washington has two (Seattle and Tacoma).
Want to trade anything with the rest of the world? The east coast and Mississippi ports aren’t going to cut it. Don’t want to trade anything? The US economy just went into depression.
I would recommend getting armed if this were to happen…just in case.
Bought my first gun at the beginning of this year. I’ve shot many guns before but never had the urge to own one until recently. AR15, figured I’d need something more than a handgun in case things get out of hand.
You wont win against Trump going to Open war with him, this is just Madness and nonsense. Start using your brains and stop doing shit for the photos on Instagram
this isn’t open war
this is money moving arround
open war is open war
So how can you win without fighting back?
