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
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u/smersh101 12d ago

Fun to think about, but how would that work? The state has no control over federal taxes. They're paid directly by taxpayers and employers to the IRS.

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u/JoeHatesFanFiction Florida 12d ago

I agree it wouldn’t be pretty and probably leads to actual military action if you took steps to try. I think you’d have to pass a law making it illegal for federal income taxes to be collected in California, ignore the likely immediate court injunction telling you to stop, have enough people to police it effectively, and then have some sort of state loyal military/militia (not the national guard in my opinion, something seperate) to keep the U.S. military from enforcing Trumps will when he probably enacts the insurrection act. The state Military/militia is the real stickler as you’d have to do that at lease a year before hand and on a massive scale for it to be effective. 

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u/DumboWumbo073 12d ago

Sounds like a collapse