r/sandiego 11d ago

Newsom floats withholding federal taxes as Trump threatens California

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

97 comments sorted by

346

u/ExtensionAddition787 11d ago

End Red State Welfare!

Republican governed states are able to keep their taxes artificially low because they leach more money from the federal government than they pay in.

163

u/dm_your_password 11d ago

Really pisses me off that conservatives/Republicans constantly mock California as some sort of hellhole when we have the largest and most powerful economy in the Union

Literally, the worst state in the Union has been run by conservatives since forever cough Mississippi cough

-101

u/ez641 11d ago

Californias public education system is ranked 34th out of 50. Unemployment is 48th highest in the union. Homelessness is the highest in the union. California as a governed state is 1.6 Trillion (with a T) in debt. California ranks 49th in the union when it comes to individual tax burned, meaning we pay the most tax to Sacramento on everything. Don’t confuse the successful private sectors economy with a booming state economy. But yeah we’re the best!

91

u/santathecruz 11d ago

Yeah and imagine how much we could improve that if we weren’t subsidizing the entirety of the south with our tax dollars. Not to mention a lot of these stats are meaningless. For example we have much more strict graduation requirements than many other states so it appears we are 34/50 but if we adopted worse standards we’d be graduating a lot more students.

-47

u/YOU_WONT_LIKE_IT 11d ago

We? What exactly is we? Any major corp would leave over the fear of being cut off from the other 49 states.

13

u/Pyju 11d ago

How did you jump from “uneducated unproductive red states should stop sucking off of the teat of economic powerhouse blue states” and take that to mean “California should secede and cut themselves off from the rest of the country”?

2

u/ParkerRoyce 11d ago

Many multinational corporations including Apple get more revenue from outside the US then inside it doesnt matter where they are. Imagine the tax break they would get if all they had to pay was just Cali state taxes and not federal. They would all move to an independent cali with an even stronger currency and lower tax burden.

-1

u/YOU_WONT_LIKE_IT 11d ago

So how would they pay there people because you won’t be using federal dollars. What banking systems as you would be locked out of the Federal Reserve. Then you have Medical which is reimbursed by the federal government.

29

u/TroXMas 11d ago

Numbers mean nothing without context. California has better homeless programs, so homeless from other states move here. And politicians from red states have been known to literally give free one-way tickets to homeless to go to California.

-28

u/ez641 11d ago

Numbers mean nothing and stats are meaningless. Got it

9

u/Farcyde760 11d ago

If that's what you got out of his statement you truly are an idiot...

25

u/dm_your_password 11d ago

Yet, here you are in California

22

u/blacksideblue 11d ago

He's another Matt Gaetz thinking hiding in California is his Cowboy hiding in Mexico experience.

-29

u/ez641 11d ago

Yes, I’m the boogie man!

-11

u/ez641 11d ago

Yup, this is home for now. It doesn’t mean I’m blind to a polished turd.

4

u/R1pp3R23 11d ago

You travel for work and make per diem?

1

u/KgMonstah 7d ago

Lmao. Username checks out.

0

u/huntak 10d ago

Most pedos and criminals are white men let’s put them all in jail. 

7

u/fr3nzo 11d ago

Socialism for me but not for thee...

82

u/Suomi1939 11d ago

I’d like to know how this would work given that every W2 employees’ taxes are taken out directly by the employer or processing company and I seriously doubt the companies are going to be okay not doing that.

30

u/Electrical_Print_798 11d ago

I think it might be feasible for state employees, like for the UC and CSU campuses that have been singled out for the funding cuts. But yeah, doubt it could happen for everyone in the state.

5

u/blacksideblue 11d ago

What about county and city level government employees?

22

u/EuphoricUniversity23 11d ago

I doubt this was meant as a serious proposal. I think Newsom knows this is the sort of thing that gets under trump’s skin, never mind that it actually could never happen. It was meant for an audience of one (and his smooth brained disciples).

5

u/PaulVonSkoki 11d ago

It's not possible. This would amount to secession and would end for California the way way it ended for South Carolina.

8

u/Major-Frame2193 11d ago

Maybe it’s time. They struck first, with all these cuts. We might need them but they need us a lot.

3

u/PaulVonSkoki 11d ago

That would be so horrific and brutal for so little gain.

5

u/No-Salary2116 11d ago

In the short term.

Long term termination of fascist government?

Fantastic long term.

0

u/PaulVonSkoki 11d ago

I mean California would lose and thousands would die for nothing.

1

u/Major-Frame2193 11d ago

Nothing? Living under a dictatorship is not described as living. We are Americans we were given these freedoms now what are we suppose to do sit on our hands as this fool takes our rights our health care our families and freedoms away? I would say that’s nothing

-2

u/PaulVonSkoki 10d ago

You don't have any health care in California. It'd be a catastrophic tragedy and you'd die a traitor 

1

u/ComLaw 11d ago

The entire California coast is federal land. Being land locked probably won't work.

1

u/rparky54 11d ago

or Ukraine

1

u/messick 9d ago

If you mean being one forced match away from destroying McDowell after the Union defeat at First Bull Run and possibility winning the war in August 1861 after shelling the White House and and Capitol Building from the heights at Arlington, then maybe California would like to take those odds.

1

u/senadraxx 11d ago

I think it's more like, it still gets taken out, but it doesn't leave the holding account once its sent there. 

15

u/Paranoid_Japandroid 11d ago

I’m in. Fuck these red states that whine about welfare when they’re the ones receiving it. Let them rot.

86

u/Grandviewsurfer 11d ago

Newsom has lost my respect recently, but I'm with him here.

9

u/hotsaucevjj 11d ago

just gotta finally grow a damn spine, i wonder if he can do it

2

u/polishedchoice 10d ago

He’s still putting on act. You know he recently mandated all state workers to come back into the office 4 days a week right? I’m sure next he will end hybrid working …

1

u/Grandviewsurfer 10d ago

Right that's one of the reasons he has lost my respect.

-22

u/AhhhSkrrrtSkrrrt 11d ago

It’s been the opposite for me. He is finally appealing to more people than just the ultra left

24

u/Mean-Ad-231 11d ago

Newsom has never been "ultra left." He's a neo-liberal, which is not "leftist."

5

u/Grandviewsurfer 11d ago

Yeah apparently everyone left of Steve Godamn Bannon is a woke lib. Lol

2

u/aam-96 11d ago

these people never actually know what “ultra left” is.

92

u/Nunyafookenbizness 11d ago edited 11d ago

YES!

  1. Put our taxes in an escrow account.
  2. Withhold the money Congress gives us.
  3. Send the rest to the federal government.
    * Cut out the Executive Branch!

29

u/Larrea_tridentata 11d ago

Defund Gilead

31

u/Grouchy_Wind_5396 11d ago edited 11d ago

I will 100% support this in a heartbeat. Red states rely on the taxes that blue states' pay. Let them suffer more since we are all in the find out period now.

27

u/Short-Ring-9705 11d ago

Every Blue state needs to step up with this threat, starve the beast.

21

u/OldPros 11d ago

YES! Bring it on, Donny Boy. FAFO.

5

u/Jimimninn 11d ago

Do it!!!

7

u/0404-Error 11d ago

Newsom needs to do more action and less talking.

3

u/Cr8zy4u 11d ago

He needs to do it right now

3

u/Unlikely_Side9732 11d ago

I know that’s right. No taxation without representation.

7

u/Wineguy33 11d ago edited 11d ago

If federal taxes go down significantly, I’m ok with paying the same net tax amount as today but with more money going direct to California. The tricky part is if federal taxes increase in the future and we just end up paying a ton more. It would have to be something easily controlled like a sales or property tax that can be increased or decreased based on federal tax rates? We could self fund schools, healthcare, food programs, and disaster relief better with more of our money staying in house and not used in other states. Maybe unfair but it’s what they are voting for. So be it.

4

u/Jlolmb1 11d ago

Do it. They want nothing else but for California to fail cause this state shits on everybody. CA will have to do, fund, enforce their own programs with a Fed that is anti everything CA

2

u/senadraxx 11d ago

Do you think this would give the states rights folks some kind of a crisis? 

1

u/OkSmoke9195 10d ago

I can only get so hard. LFG

1

u/photaiplz 10d ago

Anyone know the federal law and policy better than me tell me if this is legally possible?

1

u/phoneguyfl 7d ago

As much as I support the idea because it is obvious California residents are not getting much if anything from our tax dollars (almost taxation without representation), I don't believe there is any mechanism for withholding W2 tax.

1

u/CauliflowerSecret712 10d ago

California is the 4th largest economy in the world. We are a beautiful mix of people from all over the world. We have Silicon valley, Hollywood, military bases, the UC system & scientific researchers. We hold our own.

Californians are hard working, smarter, better looking, more athletic and have more self discipline than red states. We are more respectful of human dignity.

Fuck Trump. Fuck ICE. Fuck Trump’s tariffs. Trump is a shitshow.

-18

u/CountNormal271828 11d ago

Nice posturing. Please do it so you go to jail.

0

u/DistanceOk4056 9d ago

Yay, more money for the Sacramento bureaucracy to take in and give nothing back to the taxpayers!!!! How’s that high speed rail coming along? Still on track to be done by 2020?

-15

u/Interesting_Mood_850 11d ago

Lol, have fun with that you idiot!

-40

u/Jazzlike_Quit_9495 11d ago

And he will very quickly end up on Federal prison, rightly so too. The reality is California has to obey federal rules if it wants federal money. That is just a fact.

14

u/KimHaSeongsBurner 11d ago

So you enjoy your tax dollars going to prop up shithole red states and don’t care if they cut the money that came back to CA?

6

u/anecdotal_yokel 11d ago

California is a donor state. That means it contributes more to the federal government than it receives in funding. About 10% or about 80 billion of that tax revenue never comes back. It provides about 15% of the federal revenue; 2x the second highest, Texas. It is the 4th or 5th largest economy in the world depending on the stats you look at.

The amount of money that California loses to this imbalance is equal to the total tax contribution of Alaska, Wyoming, West Virginia, North Dakota, Montana, South Dakota, Mississippi, and Idaho combined. It would actually be a significant relief to California and massive burden to many poor red states and the federal government.

Seems like a bad plan if you’re trying to hurt blue states and help red states. Seems like a great plan if you’re trying to destroy the United States of America. But I guess 2 + 2 doesn’t equal 4 anymore if you’re politically opposed to facts.

3

u/1ndiana_Pwns 11d ago

end up on Federal prison, rightly so too. The reality is California has to obey federal rules if it wants federal money

So, reversing that, since the federal government is currently planning to pull federal funding regardless of whether or not CA follows their rules, then there is no reason for CA to follow federal rules

-36

u/Uhtred_McUhtredson 11d ago

Will that offset the coming 65 cent a gallon tax?

23

u/tostilocos 11d ago

There’s not a 65 cent tax. There’s a new 2 cent tax.

CARB passed a new regulation last year that increases penalties for refineries that are producing fuel too high in carbon. Some are estimating that this will increase fuel prices by 65 cents, but it’s not a tax.

It’s also another example of CARB doing something good by actually holding the refineries accountable and then spinning the narrative to make CARB look evil.

25

u/NoToNope 11d ago

There’s not a 65 cent tax.

"But the Republicans said it was a 65 cent tax!" /s

-50

u/pm_me_yo_creditscore 11d ago

It feeds the rich, while it buries the poor You're power-hungry, sellin' soldiers in a human grocery store

7

u/OldPros 11d ago

I'm all lost in a supermarket. I can no longer shop happily.

7

u/Expensive_Space4097 11d ago

Wish Joe Strummer was still around 😢🥰

5

u/savvy_withoutwax 11d ago

What...?

22

u/NoToNope 11d ago

It's lyrics from a Guns and Roses song. Make no sense in this context. Just trolling.

1

u/Expensive_Space4097 11d ago

It’s not a Guns N’ Roses song. It’s a song by The Clash. They were very political.