The Trump administration is preparing to cancel a large swath of federal funding for California, an effort that could begin as soon as Friday, according to multiple sources.
Agencies are being told to start identifying grants the administration can withhold from California. Sources said the administration is specifically considering a full termination of federal grant funding for the University of California and California State University systems.
Singling out one state for massive cuts would be an unusual move, but Donald Trump has long made Democratic-led California a target.
Sounds like California should cancel the taxes it would normally send to the fed.
That would break the bank. California is 4th largest economy in the world, after the U.S., China, and Germany. It would probably cause Trump to declare martial law and send troops to California.
Remember, the state doesn’t pay taxes, individual citizens do by filling out their annual federal income taxes.
So, if “California” were to stop giving money to the federal government, the governor would basically need to convince individual citizens not to file their 1040.
And all of those people would have to clinch their assholes and hope Trump didn’t sick the IRS on them.
Also employers would need to all simultaneously stop withholding taxes from employee paychecks for federal taxes, since you can’t just update your W-2 to a $0 withholding without claiming dependents, multiple other jobs, etc. You don’t “choose” your withholding, you just check the boxes that calculates the minimum withholding.
They can stop taking federal taxes out of state employee pay
But then each of those people get walloped with a big ass 1040 payment from the feds at the end of the year. And they feds can chose to make an “example” of random people who don’t pay up.
California imposes a new law that companies operating in Cali cannot automatically collect federal income tax from Californian citizens.
Cali raises the state tax rate to match the current federal rate (could probably go lower actually, since Cali is subsidizing most of the red states).
Boom, no more taxes paid to the Fed.
Or… Cali’s creates a law where their own tax department collects the federal tax and pays it for their citizens.
That’s the problem California doesn’t send taxes to the Federal government. People and businesses pay directly to the government. There’s no mechanism to even stop it on a state level if a governor wanted to.
No taxation without representation.
All the blue states should do this. Shake off the conservative parasites.
I was wondering about this. The new BBB or whatever increases SALT to 40k. I live in Jersey. I would have no problem with NJ just taxing me 40k outright. You just pay 40k to live in NJ. And then I just deduct that 40k from my federal tax burden, bringing it down below 0. What’s stopping states from doing this?
The irs wouldn’t recognize the deduction and you would still owe the entire amount to the federal government.
I’m curious why you say this, and I’m not trying to be argumentative. I pay 11k for property taxes, and so with this I get to deduct that 11k from my federal taxes. And if you mean to say that the IRS and the Feds would be like hey, you can’t do that, yeah, you’re probably right, and I agree. I’m just curious if you had some other rationale for the suggestion. I am no tax expert.
It would be considered tax evasion. Deductions not authorized by federal statute, have no affect on federal tax laws. Start following your own rules, and they will come knocking on your door. Of course with staffing cuts, it could be years from now when they show up.
Yeah, I guess I’m still a little confused. You’re allowed to deduct State and Local taxes on your federal return. Now it’s 10k, the BBB raises it to 40k. I’m just saying states should levy a tax to maximize the SALT deduction for everyone, because you’re allowed to do it. But it’s not going to happen, just me being silly.
I was misunderstanding a bit myself. I was thinking you meant by yourself. As a state, California could possibly increase property taxes to maximize everyone’s salt deduction. As more of a long term solution it might even be an idea depending on California constitutional law. More likely though, they would just have to fight the illegal impoundment in the court. While it would likely take months to get done, changing tax law the the affects of that would take years.
Californexit
Califexit. Or Cali Fecks Off depending where n your point of view.
If the federal government isn’t going to give California back the federal taxes paid by its citizens then it should stop paying federal taxes.
I’m going to be fucking shook if Gavin actually does it. So far, the only people I’ve seen him meaningfully stand up to are bay area NIMBYs and homeless people.
millbrae made a fuss like a year-2 ago about some housing/location being built for the poor. guess who the nimbys are, all rich white people(i saw the video of them whining). Poc dont make a fuss with others around, i ever only seen caucasian people do it. remember the white flight in the bay, now its regentrifying. we did a whole talk/project about gentrification in the area in one of my courses.
Yeah. I’m out here fighting the NIMBYs in my city, they’re almost all older white dudes, not even that wealthy by California standards. It was super cool to see Newsom twist their arm like that, way less cool to see him bulldoze the homeless afterward.
Taco Don doesn’t understand how anything works.
I wonder how one could do this.
The state of California could implement say, an 80% state income tax. This would be deductable from federal tax per IRS tax code. The state could then create an instant tax credit to credit back a gross 69% income, leaving 11% to the state to match their current tax rate.
The Feds would only get tax on 20% of wages, unlike the 89% they do now
Then you get something like the current SALT cap that cancels that out
It would only delay things. When you get a state tax refund, the next year it’s counted as federal wages.
Delaying things might be enough if the state can do it for years
Taxes are collected through the private for-profit banking system in a manner that’s completely disjointed from the state of residency. Payroll taxes are incredibly efficient, with north of a 98% collections rate, for this reason. The private banks need the Federal Reserve and the Federal Reserve needs the US Treasury. So when the US Treasury says it’s taking a vig on your employer’s deposit at Bank of America or Citigroup or even your local Credit Union, compliance is instant and unquestioning.
Going Unbanked is one way to get around this. But without an employer who is operating on the same wavelength and willing to play ball, unbanking yourself is difficult and expensive and fraught with criminal liabilities.
So, the short answer is that there’s no (practical) way for a State Government to intervene on Federal income tax collection. Not when all the transactions are taking place in a server farm hosted in a NYC boiler room, anyway.
if state funding is being canceled, that state should leave the union. why be apart of the united states government if trump is dismantling and destroying the united states government.
The American thing to do is fight for America.
The people who want California to just leave are the ones who want to dismantle the country.
I think it maybe time to change the dynamic of the USA. Maybe instead of 2 levels, maybe three. Federal, regional, and state. Where the federal hands over some powers to the regional government. I am not sure how that could happen, but it might be a good direction.
So Americans need to switch it off and on again. Gather up new founding fathers and mothers, write up a new constitution and declaration of independence - write up documents for a new federation between states…
Create a back up United States. Declare the old one null and void. Stop interacting with the old one. Start interacting with the new one.
Call all this something benign sounding. Try not to go to war about it. But yeah, you all need to switch this shit off and on again.
I agree. Time for a good old constitutional convention.
I can’t wait to be the United Coca-Cola States of Unilever America.
Except that’s exactly what the Heritage Foundation has been wanting for decades so they can turn the US into an official Christofascist nation.
California should cancel state funding for the federal government.
How about California cancelling paying federal taxes in turn? This would probably lead to a big loss for the federal budget, wouldn’t it?
If the Federal Government boycotts California, then California should close every Federal agency, prohibit all Federal employees from working, and confiscate all Federal property, then make it illegal to pay Federal income taxes in California. Instead, Federal income taxes will be collected by the state, and used to provide free health care and college for all California citizens.
They should also form a state pact with Oregon and Washington, then form an alliance with Canada and Mexico. That would surround about 3/4 of the USA
That would allow them to cut off MAGA access to the west coast ports, and charge exorbitant taxes and fees to get shipments from Asia, or be forced to ship them through the Panama Canal to the East Coast.
The war that would result would be like nothing any of us have ever experienced, except for our veterans, perhaps, though they would never have had to fight their own people before. The only people who would truly know ahead of time what to expect would be those who came to this country from war-torn regions that had experienced civil war.
California is powerful economically, but do they have the military might to withstand the hell that the US Army can unleash? If other states join them, it’ll be utter chaos, and who knows how it ends, but that might turn the tide for the rebels as the military would likely fracture as many might follow their states to the exit.
Aside from utter dissolution of the Union, the only way I can see California standing up to the USA would be to have a nuclear deterrent available immediately upon independence, which would likely mean seizing as many federal nuclear weapons as they could. Whether the California National Guard would be up to that is beyond my ken.
God help us all if Trump continues on this path.
Funny thing Is that Trump would nuke California. He’s speed running the Civil War movie that came out.
And get nuked in return, assuming weapons could be seized by California and employed. But you’re right: I could see that egomaniac fucking us all over further by starting a nuclear conflict.
God, I want my family out of this country, but there’s nowhere to go.
Before my dad went down the Qanon hole. He told me America was the last place on earth for true freedom. And we ran away from a genocide because our overlords turned on us.
anti-science funding. the threat to fascists states are usually intellectual and science so they are often the first to be persecuted before minorities are. most of the people in the industries are smart enough to leave the country before sht hits the fan.
He’s still mad that Schwarzenegger took over The Celebrity Apprentice
california doesnt even need federal funding. california funds everyone else.
All blue states feed the poorly uneducated.
The University of California is the largest employer in the state.
In most other states, Walmart is the biggest employer.
Talk about giving higher education the middle finger!
It says a lot, by itself.
The ICE raids are meant to cause the response we are seeing, and eventually an even more powerful response. The White House has already been throwing around the word insurrection, which implies the insurrection act. If the natural escalation that they expect takes place, it could create the conditions where the insurrection act can be invoked. Since the Federal level is under control of the Trump Administration, that leaves the National Guard, state police, county sheriffs, and local police departments. The only one of these capable of standing up to the Feds would be the National Guard. If things turn ugly over the next few weeks during continued raids in places like L.A., it could force the Governor to deploy the national guard given the numbers of people involved. Some of these communities are well armed and they are already fighting back. If the goal is to cause the conditions to invoke the insurrection act, it would take away the ablity of the California Governor to direct his national guard. They can be forced to follow the orders of the President, which is one of the reasons for using the Insurrection Act in the first place.
In a place like L.A., this leaves just the LAPD and Sherrifs department and they do not have the power to stop both the Feds and a national guard under White House control. L.A. seems to be heavily targeted by the Trump administration in many different ways. They are looking at bribery and corruption in many areas like LA Homeless Agency. The ICE raids targeted the Fashion District are meant as an economic attack, as many of those people worked in shops and factories. Other ICE raids targeted companies involved in agriculture. The Trump admin is also looking at other Federal funding to take away from California.
All of this combined could mean that the state Government, state and local police cannot protect these communities from what is being sent after them, partially as an overall form of economic warfare against California generally. You have the wildfire funds, the tariffs attacking the shipping areas of coastal California, and it’s obvious that it is a well planned operation. Behind this too is a hostile DOJ and FBI, not to mention DHS, ICE, and everyone else. They are being hunted.
The State Government can’t protect anyone either, they have been totally outmanuvered at every stage, because they are just coasting until 2026. The one advantage people have is their numbers. Peaceful protest is the way forward, it just takes a lot more people knowing about the raids and being present to protest them. If the Trump admin wants a Kent state or Tiananmen Square type situation on their hands, that will be on them…
National Guard was already deployed by Trump to Los Angeles today.
I posted that about 30 minutes before it happened.
Yup, not arguing, just adding some updates.
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Cali should stop paying taxes.
I’m not paying taxes to a fascist government. A State can figure out how to do it too.
Easier said than done. Payroll systems do this automatically
So hire an A-Team of Payroll experts to figure it out. Use the money that would have gone to GovCo to pay their fee.
It’s not that it can’t be done. It’s whether or not they want to do it.
California should confiscate Trump National golf course.
Finally a good use of eminent domain
Turn it into a homeless shelter.
And spend 30 years building high speed rail through it, just to flex.
Wind turbines
And another big ass canal, for good measure.
Next: California will not pay Federal taxes?
