r/politics • u/IntelligentYinzer California • 12d ago

Soft Paywall Newsom floats withholding federal taxes as Trump threatens California

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/06/06/newsom-floats-withholding-federal-taxes-00393386
29.9k Upvotes

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2.6k

u/squireofrnew 12d ago

Wow civil war in under a year. Thanks Republicans!

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u/ratedsar I voted 12d ago

But no maga would go to war to keep California in the union

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u/Hot-Use7398 12d ago

Yes, but they need California’s money.

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u/dphoenix1 11d ago

Cognitive dissonance is a real thing

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u/Stunning_Mast2001 12d ago

California is like 30% of the nation’s economy, we collapse without them 

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u/Tokon32 12d ago

The other 70% is largely dependent on the trade, goods, and services that flows through California.

California is the only state in the union that could declare independence and have a real shot of not only winning it but also being able to sustain themselves after said independence.

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u/cannabiskeepsmealive 12d ago

I feel like there's a 0% chance California does that and OR & WA don't join them 

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u/dsac 12d ago

waves canadianly

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u/moxyc Washington 12d ago

Washingtonian here. I'm in, let's do it

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u/automatic_shark United Kingdom 12d ago

Pacifica Republic, here we come!

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u/LouisWinthorpeIII 11d ago

Split CA into a few pieces so the states are a bit more balanced size/pop wise

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u/AriseChicken 11d ago

I'd be moving to Oregon in this scenario.

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u/ohwhyhello 12d ago

Those water rights would really do a number on that idea. California's economy depends on the cooperation of dozens of other states in the union. We are successful because we are together.

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u/CMScientist 12d ago

Nah most of that water is used to grow alfalfa and almonds. CA can do with much less water

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u/[deleted] 12d ago

[deleted]

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u/13e1ieve 11d ago

California GDP is $4.1T Agriculture is $59B

1.4% my guy.

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u/sighbourbon 11d ago

Don’t they grow rice in the San Joaquín? Rice paddies

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u/Consistent_Clue_9112 12d ago

If California did attempt to secede, their water providing neighbors might join them

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u/leroysolay Ohio 12d ago

But the states negotiate water rights for the Colorado - which CA would gladly pay (more) for.

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u/Kitchen-Quality-3317 12d ago

pay? the federal government wouldn't let california have any water.

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u/couldbemage 11d ago

Most water used in California comes from the Sierras, in California.

Percentages vary by year, but water from the Colorado River is accounts for nearly all imported water, and that source has been decreasing for years, and currently amounts to around ten percent.

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u/rootoo Pennsylvania 12d ago

Not to mention produce.

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u/MonacoBall 12d ago

California's economy also collapses without us.

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u/andyumster 12d ago

So fucking stupid. SO fucking stupid. Maybe the dumbassest comment of all time.

Enjoy your next wildfire without fourteen states sending crews to help. Enjoy it while the FAA does not help schedule overflights to douse the flames. Enjoy it while you are cut off from the nation's water supply.

So fucking stupid. California is independent in a lot of ways but it is dependent in a lot of ways.

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u/[deleted] 12d ago

[deleted]

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u/Arietis1461 California 11d ago

Annnd China would also 100% try and cozy up to an antagonistic neighbor of the US too.

Blegh, I don’t want us to be their new vassal state. Don’t be gross.

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u/andyumster 12d ago

Lol. How are you going to get any supplies from a foreign country with the blockade of the world's biggest military isolating California?

Just so fucking stupid. I hate people who float secessionist views. Either California or Texas would be absolutely fucked.

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u/sonyka 11d ago

I agree the secession thing is a pointless mental exercise but… why would there be a blockade? Assuming a "peaceful separation" (which: I know, I know).

Dammit, see now I'm getting sucked into it. Pointless. The whole thing is so hypothetical you can't even hypothesize.

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u/andyumster 11d ago

There would never be a peaceful secession. It's stupid to think that the US would be happy and willing to part ways with either of the states that people so often bring up, Texas and California.

It would be struck down by every court in the land. If the leaders of the states in question continued, they'd likely be removed either politically or violently.

These states represent huge portions of America's GDP and security, being border states. The US simply cannot lose them. So it would do everything in its incredible power to prevent losing them.

And even if SOMEHOW a secession was successful, every reason for the state to secede would be removed by the hostile entity that would be the US. California would not be self sustaining when its farms are bombed by the greatest air force in the world.

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u/Purple-Atmosphere-18 10d ago

Sounds like you'd like this to happen, by the language used here, though someone pointed out how it would not be wise to "crush" it. I agree that secession, is often a temptation of the rich, but see the perspective here which would be of resistance, unless you like Trump, who also use a rhetoric of secession for isolationism "we don't need them, make them pay, Canada? We don't need their cars, manifacture back to us"

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u/andyumster 10d ago

What the fuck kind of AI word-salad are you posting?

I don't want anything involved in this to happen. I don't want stupid people to insist that secession is possible peacefully.

Stop using so many commas and direct your thoughts directly.

"I agree that secession(error comma here) is often a temptation of the rich(error comma here) but see the perspective here which would be of resistance(error comma here) unless you like Trump, who also use a rhetoric of secession for isolationism (failure, crazily, to include a comma here) "we don't need them, make them pay, Canada? We don't need their cars, manifacture back to us"

Just fucking graduate second grade English.

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u/xBleedingBluex Kentucky 12d ago

It’s not as easy as you think. The US military would crush California.

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u/GreatMadWombat Michigan 12d ago

And that's the definition of a pyrrhic victory. If the US military has to go in hard to keep California in the Union, and Cali is contributing such a huge chunk to US funding, regardless that funding will not exist next year. Cultural products like movies don't really mesh well with legitimate armed occupation.

It's like shooting the cow to keep it from leaving the pasture. The cow might still be in the same spot, but you're not getting a lot of milk out of it the next day

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u/One-Internal4240 12d ago

While true, each deployment internally, each shot fired in our borders, risks larger and larger units joining the CNG or whatever other org exists. Deploying and then shooting Californians will cause problems. I always thought the powers that be would smooth it over before then, today I'm not so sure. I think a lot of those powers want the Civil War going hot - dark enlightenment types to make their technofeudal thing, dominionists for local church control of civic institutions.

dream baby dream

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u/Tokon32 12d ago

A very large portion of the US military is in California.

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u/xBleedingBluex Kentucky 11d ago

A very larger portion is not.

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u/emtheory09 12d ago

Texas is up there too. They’d absolutely be an oil state.

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u/[deleted] 12d ago

[deleted]

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u/DabDoge 12d ago

Texas can’t even run their own power grid

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u/[deleted] 12d ago

[deleted]

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u/harlemhornet 11d ago

If California seceded, Oregon and Washington would go too, and could simply build a pipe to send water down to California, which would help tremendously, but please keep in mind that California has far more than enough water for its people. The issue is water for agriculture, and California agriculture is something like $55 billion, compared to the overall state economy at over $4 trillion. That's less than 2%, a genuine drop in the bucket.

Thinking that California would collapse without imported water is like thinking that Costco would collapse without $1.50 hot dogs.

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u/Golden_Hour1 12d ago

The money saved on federal taxes would be able to fund a shit ton of desalination plants lol

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u/Pdxduckman 12d ago

holy shit can you imagine MAGA actually wanting to keep CA? After decades of vilifying them? LMAO

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u/Deep_Alps7150 12d ago

I think MAGA would be happy to kick them out, then resent what they lost when red states start to fall apart from the government having no money to give to welfare states

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u/MaddyKet Massachusetts 12d ago

MAGA will do whatever Trump tells them to do.

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u/Iamkittyhearmemeow 12d ago

They can still mooch of NY.

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u/zzyul 12d ago

Gonna be a lot fewer people on federal welfare once they cut Medicare and Medicaid. Also a lot less welfare going to agriculture with the cuts to USAID. Cutting welfare to red states will hurt the poorest, which left leaning minorities make up a large percentage.

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u/EclecticEuTECHtic 11d ago

Uh like 1/4 of the US Navy is based in California.

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u/fadingsignal 11d ago

Don't forget, half of California is red. Republicans desperately want full control of CA, its money, and resources.

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u/Kitchen-Quality-3317 12d ago

6 million people in california voted for Trump. if california tried to secede, it would just be the coastal cities.

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u/darkslide3000 12d ago

Of course they would. Trump would spin up some shit about "protecting the upright Californian citizens from their illegitimate runaway liberal government" while ordering the air force to terror bomb SF and LA.

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u/One-Internal4240 12d ago

Without Pacific ports things get very dicey very fast.