sure. but ice, billionaire taxes, gutting of federal agencies (hhs, ssa, doj, etc) is an existential threat to us all regardless of individual state politics
Replies
Cutting state and international funding on infectious disease hurts everyone and poverty (and all the associated long-term societal costs) hurts everyone & the wider economy. But controls on tax cuts, gerrymandering, gun control, electoral college reform etc. could achieve minimal harm.
sep 1, 2025, 2:02 pm • 0 0 • view
i’m not entirely sure what argument you are making here—that we should or should not attempt to reserve federal taxes to the state they were generated in?
sep 1, 2025, 2:07 pm • 0 0 • view
We should reserve more taxes in state but not take away completely from red states, if projects would just cause wider societal & economic harm. But red states willing to meaningfully enagage on issues that benefit all states through economic benefits(e.g. improved gun control) can get more.
sep 1, 2025, 2:11 pm • 0 0 • view
one thing i advocated for last january was for california to keep its taxes and put them in escrow to be used in FEMA-style aid to disaster areas (regardless of state)—before i understood the full amt involved for CA [800bn] and the practical difficulty of intercepting this money
sep 1, 2025, 2:21 pm • 1 0 • view
but i think mutual aid pacts would be a more complex layer that would develop on top of fed tax claw-back, and lm we even figure that part out; and that alone could precipitate civil war bc this regime very much wants all that money
sep 1, 2025, 2:21 pm • 1 0 • view
either way if this regime isn’t stopped, we are all going to suffer
sep 1, 2025, 2:21 pm • 1 0 • view
Fair warnings: 1) my response to you was this AM after only 1/2 cup of coffee. 2) I’m never quite sure how to follow the threads on BlueSky as to who is replying to whom so I hope I got it right. But anyway, the initial thought was blue states should stop subsidizing red states.
sep 1, 2025, 6:46 pm • 0 0 • view
sure. and my response was that the reason i want (technically all) states to pull back federal funding is to stop ice/billionaire funding. it is not because i want to somehow punish red states. maga is doing that just fine by going after all of us.
sep 1, 2025, 7:25 pm • 0 0 • view
yes that hurts red states bc they never bothered with improving things for their residents. no, that’s not my goal. all the blame for those particular consequences goes to those states’ respective govts and politicians but at this point, ALL of us are being hurt via ice/billionaire funding.
sep 1, 2025, 7:25 pm • 0 0 • view
You replied that would be nice in your first reply and why. I agree but I also agreed with a later reply that this is impossible because the only way that could happen is that states would have to intercept tax revenue flows from individuals and corps that are currently paid to the US treasury.
sep 1, 2025, 6:46 pm • 0 0 • view
But I also asserted that since red states are bigger consumers of transfer payment programs like Medicaid, Social security disability, SNAP, housing, and other programs based on household income AND that MAGA is trying to gut those programs, then it only follows that less revenues of blue state….
sep 1, 2025, 6:48 pm • 0 0 • view
….will flow to red states as a result, except that blue state government has little control of it and will see no windfall benefit from. Your reply to me then greatly expanded the discussion to include tax cuts, ice, doj…i.e. well beyond the transfer payments.
sep 1, 2025, 6:49 pm • 1 0 • view
The fact is that there is only one issue that matters that is the federal courts, including SCOTUS, upholding all our laws, and taking hardline, and unique measures to enforce their decisions if MAGA chooses to disregard them…
sep 1, 2025, 6:50 pm • 0 0 • view
(e.g. any federal judge can deputized a prosecutor, they don’t need to rely on DOJ). So far, no takers, and it looks to a number of constitutional experts that we’re close to losing our system of law, if we haven’t already.
sep 1, 2025, 6:50 pm • 0 0 • view
And without a system of law based on democratically made laws, nothing else really matters, including states’ laws. /E
sep 1, 2025, 6:50 pm • 0 0 • view
lol okay. maybe i unreasonably expanded (i don’t think so but we’ll set that aside) relevant issues from your pov but reading thru all this you’ve taken this unreasonably seriously, since i also pointed out the basic impossibility of states somehow impounding federal taxes
sep 1, 2025, 7:36 pm • 0 0 • view
to be clear: if that happens its bc we’re starting a second civil war which… yes, exactly
sep 1, 2025, 7:36 pm • 0 0 • view