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www.politico.com

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.

  • TankovayaDiviziya@lemmy.world
    7·
    11 hours ago

    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.

  • Lasherz@lemmy.worldM
    91·
    14 hours ago

    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.

  • WoodScientist@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    37·
    1 day ago

    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:

    1. 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.

    2. Encourage and teach California citizens how to set their federal tax withholding to zero and encourage California businesses to do the same.

    3. 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.

      • WoodScientist@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        91·
        1 day ago

        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.