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.
just fucking do it, you asshole.
It’s grandstanding…but it pisses off the Orange Turdburgler so I can’t complain too much.
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.
California should just leave the US and form its own country.
Been saying that we’re headed for balkanization since the clown won his first term. Not seeing any reason to change that prediction.
balkanization
For uninformed people like myself:
Balkanization is the process of a country or region fragmenting into smaller, often hostile units, typically driven by ethnic, cultural, religious, or geopolitical differences. The term originates from the Balkan Peninsula, a region that has experienced significant fragmentation throughout history, and the term is now used more broadly to describe similar processes elsewhere.
I’m not looking forward for the chaos preceding the emergence of the next superpower if US balkanization happens.
US balkanization is exactly the chaos preceding the emergence of the next superpower.
China
Maybe. They’re floundering since Xi put economics on a lower tier than his own power.
The EU could do it, but it will require sharp thinking and sharper action.
California, without the constant drain on its resources.
I think that’s incredibly wishful thinking.
Why would you think that? It’s already the world’s 4th largest economy with the drain.
Isn’t it just China at this point?
Feel free to join Canada my friends.
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.
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.
America needs ranked choice voting. Unfortunately the GOP has been banning it in every state they can.
I remember seeing it as “america” vs “dumbfuckistan”
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.
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.
I’m neither rich nor skilled enough :( If I was I’d be up there like yesterday
One thing that might be misunderstood here is that California not paying taxes wouldn’t harm Trump. Trump’s goal, made clear from a sum of lots of behaviors, is the destruction of the United States. Defaulting on its debt, zeroing its GDP, destroying the livelihood of its inhabitants, and ultimately killing its war machine, so that they can’t fight Putin’s army. California’s lack of payment may just hasten that goal.
I don’t think Trump is as much of a lackey that’s following the plan as he is a useful idiot that’s easy to manipulate. I believe that Trump believes that the US is the biggest and the best - it suits the same image he has of himself as the biggest and best leader - but he’s so dumb and narcissistic that he won’t realize that he’s being led on a leash.
I don’t think Trump consciously wants to destroy America, I think he wants to make it what he considers to be great (a militarily powerful dictatorship built on worshiping him), but he’s absolutely fine with making it weaker in the interim if it either:
A. Makes him gain something
B. Feeds his egoI don’t think he is a puppet of Putin. I think he really, really likes money and power, that’s it. He does things to further his own grip of the country, thus increasing his power. Or, he does things to increase his wealth. Nothing more. He likes authoritarian leaders because they have more of a hold on their respective countries (a weird form of respect), or because they give him money (or expensive planes).
But if it’s not Putin’s fault,
- US people would have to face the reality that there’s stupid people among them
- and there’d be no “external threat” to distract from internal problems!
They’ll find a way to blame someone or something else. Cognitive dissonance and all.
It might put California on the track to surviving Trump’s destruction and becoming a civilized country opposed to Putin, unlike other US states.
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.
you don’t need to wait for the government to do that.
This is, hands down, the funniest version of this that I have seen.
I even heard it in his voice goddamnit.
This is art.
New Californian Republic 2027?
Just join Canada. If you are willing to consider you aren’t the center of the world, you are welcome.
No they’re too big, instantly doubling the population wouldn’t go well. At most a Euro style partnership if a few more western states broke off.
West coast alliance :)
Oh sick can we get the yaogui on the flag too?
They will just flatten it with carpet bombs.
California is unlikely to give up their nukes.
Educate me for a moment, are Nukes on a seperate grid by state?
They can all work off the grid, in case we get hit first.
I do not mean power plants:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrence_Livermore_National_Laboratory?wprov=sfla1
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.
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
I see. So, part of the plan to take it over as an independent nation-state run as a neo-feudal technocracy that Curtis Yarvin has advocated?
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?
Technically trump’s presidency is illegal. But here we are.
Don’t bet on hope from this. California can’t win on its own.this needs to build significantly before it has an effect.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
She left you for Elon.
Lol what. Are you doin ok, buddy?
“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.
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
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.
This would be madlad behaviour if it actually happens
If just New York and California did this, it would cripple some red states
All red states. It would cripple the country and thus ALL red states.
Good. Even my state provides more, than we get. Fuck em! Let them have their Jesus Land. That will make America great, no red states.
Same, I’m in one of the few red states that actually makes money. But honestly I’m at the point where I’m just like whatever. Fuck it, right? Just burn it down so our rot doesn’t infect the rest of the world. Seriously, this would be a mercy killing at this point. Please don’t let this spread.
