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.

      • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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        5 days ago

        Breaks down when you start seeing all the blueberries in the ketchup and you realize that’s where huge portions of the population actually live.

        So much of that red state territory is vacant real estate. A big chunk more is functionally disenfranchised (Indian reservations, migrant labor communities, large prison populations).

        This illustrates regions of political control. But it is in no way reflective of homogeneous popular opinion.

        • Bassman1805@lemmy.world
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          Shit, even doing shades of purple without getting more granular than the state level would change the map drastically. This winner take all bullshit is the dumbest part of the electoral college.

          • Bravo@eviltoast.org
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            5 days ago

            America needs ranked choice voting. Unfortunately the GOP has been banning it in every state they can.

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      6 days ago

      I would really like to come visit if the road border near Detroit is still relatively safe. My passport and driver’s license have the same name and gender so I might have a chance.

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        They might still get you on skin colour, ethno-linguistic origin of name, left-wing political affiliations, religious affiliations (or lack thereof), type of employment or specific employer, perceived accent, or a boarder agent just having a very bad or a very good day.

    • NeonNight@lemm.ee
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      I’m neither rich nor skilled enough :( If I was I’d be up there like yesterday

    • cattywampas@lemm.ee
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      6 days ago

      I don’t think there’s really a way to do this, since federal taxes are paid directly to the fed without state involvement. This is just to poke the bear, which I am all for.

      • GuyFawkes@midwest.social
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        Good. Keep poking until he has a heart attack. If he recovers, rinse and repeat until we get it right.

        • dohpaz42@lemmy.world
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          I’m all for it too, but keep in mind that successors to dictators are never better; only worse. It only ever gets worse.

          ~Hide your kids. Hide your couch!~

            • dohpaz42@lemmy.world
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              5 days ago

              This dictator is merely a puppet; plain and simple. The real Palpatine is someone else. Maybe it’s Putin, or maybe it’s Thiel. We haven’t gotten to that episode yet.

              • samus12345@sh.itjust.works
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                But this puppet is who the cultists at the bottom support. They won’t get their support for anyone else so easily, if they even need them at that point.

                • dohpaz42@lemmy.world
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                  I would argue that now that the GOP has all three branches of government, Darth Trump is expendable.

          • GuyFawkes@midwest.social
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            Yeah but there seems to be something about this fucking guy. I don’t think his successor will have the same draw.

      • turtlesareneat@discuss.online
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        The hypothetical way to do it is severely penalize companies within California that pay federal tax. Make it so financially burdonsome they have to relocate or stop paying federal tax of their own accord. This is just what’s been suggested before when this has come up.

      • Cocodapuf@lemmy.world
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        I’ve been thinking about this, and I’m afraid I agree. I’m not sure how you could enforce this. Paying federal tax seems like a personal choice and the consequences would be felt by individuals (tax evasion charges, unless trump manages to get it treated as a terrorist act). I’d be interested to see if the state was actually offering to shield CA citizens from being arrested by federal agents or subpoenaed by federal courts.

        Also, for the most part the Fed already has our money, right? The majority of that federal tax is withheld from paychecks and goes directly to the Fed…

        • Furbag@lemmy.world
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          You can withhold paying your federal taxes from your paycheck. Most people don’t because they don’t want to get stuck with a big tax bill in April with no way to pay it if they spent that money or lost it on a bad investment. if enough people all did that at once, regardless of state, it could put a big financial burden on Trump. The government heavily relies on this steady source of income, and unless you make a lot of money, you are probably getting a federal return every year, which means you gave the U.S. Government an interest free loan of sorts.

          • malank@lemm.ee
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            You also get hit with an underpayment penalty if you do this and don’t pay estimated taxes too.

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    I’m not mad at this at all I’m thrilled a politician is actually fighting back. He has a history of standing up against trump and the gop status quo

    That said this is the first time there is any bite to it and the cynic/realist in me is saying it’s cause he is gearing up for presidential nomination and election. I really hope he is not the Democrat choice.

    if the good wife/fight taught me anything the democrats already have someone picked out and priming public for it

    I just wish we had Bernie i wanna see that timline :'(

    • 13igTyme@lemmy.world
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      I want the timeline where Carter won a second term and the Christian nationalists funding Reagan realized their plan didn’t work and give up on it.

        • ℍ𝕂-𝟞𝟝@sopuli.xyz
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          Harris lost before she ran. Not that she was a strong candidate, but the Dems could have ran literal Jesus, Trump was going to come back either way as long as big money was in politics. Maybe if they ran someone who at least promised change, they could have staved off Trump for another 4 years. Would they have sentenced him in another 4 years? Would anyone been able to get people like Thiel and Musk out of politics?

          This will get worse before it gets better. I just hope most of it stays contained in the US.

          • Trainguyrom@reddthat.com
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            Trump’s health has been declining pretty rapidly, especially his mental health. I won’t be surprised if he doesn’t make it to the end of this term. And if he does I’m not sure he’d be mentally capable of running in 2028

            • ℍ𝕂-𝟞𝟝@sopuli.xyz
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              And what precedent does it set for US civil society that he was allowed to get away with it? This shit is poison to a free civil society.

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        Unfortunately, they tend to try harder when it doesn’t work the first time. The first attempts at the Prosperity Gospel, prior to WWII, were laughed off because it was so obviously self-serving to rich people. They kept at it until it stuck.

      • prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        Or how about a timeline where we didn’t immediately give up on Restoration Reconstruction after the Civil War

        EDIT: derp.

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    What is a donor state?

    Indeed, cbsnews. What is a “donor state”?

    Maybe if you could use that term a few dozen more times, other outlets could pick it up and it would eventually back up into Fox News’ talking points where they’d have to either lie utterly, or risk their viewers’ comprehension that red states take money from blue states. Charity, let’s say. MAGA heads would temporarily be offline.

  • GaMEChld@lemmy.world
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    Can anyone explain what this even means? 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?

    Or would everyone have to manually adjust their W2 withholdings to boycott?

    • samus12345@sh.itjust.works
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      I guess it would be something like “Don’t pay your federal taxes, Californians, we will not cooperate with the federal government if they try to collect.”

  • Bizzle@lemmy.world
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    I don’t like Gavin Newsom, but I really hope he does this. It would be so funny 🥲

  • DarkFuture@lemmy.world
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    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.

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    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.

    • anachrohack@lemmy.world
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      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

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        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.

      • Kickforce@lemmy.wtf
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        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?

        • anachrohack@lemmy.world
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          Could provide legitimacy, but when currencies cross borders it becomes more difficult to manage them politically. The Euro is messy because monetary policy that helps Germany may not help Italy

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    The state government isn’t involved with collecting federal taxes, so how could this be done?

    • brandon@piefed.social
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      I don’t know how they could implement this across the private sector, but the State of California has a quarter million employees for which they could probably stop sending tax withholdings to the feds.

      According to this random site I found Googling, it’s around $230M every month.