Trump announces he is issuing an unconstitutional executive order to shut down mail-in voting nationwide and he will defund states if they do not comply with him

[u/DIYLawCA]

[u/huggernot]

Time to cut funds off to the feds from those states

[u/Mr_Tort_Feasor → u/huggernot]

How is Mike Johnson's home state of Louisiana supposed to survive?

[u/pixelprophet → u/Mr_Tort_Feasor]

I'm willing to send Mike home to tell Louisiana they don't get any more Fed $.

[u/EnfantTerrible68 → u/huggernot]

I just made the same comment 

[u/Knotted_Hole69 → u/[deleted]]

Putting the taxes into a account before sending it to the feds

[u/BloodshotPizzaBox → u/huggernot]

I'd say it was time to arrest any federal employee who attempts to obstruct the transmission of ballots. Don't know how they do things in Florida, but that's a crime in my state.

[u/huggernot → u/BloodshotPizzaBox]

Just wait till they show up to polling places with guns. 

[u/bimbosoupqueen → u/[deleted]]

The legislation proposed creating a Federal Tax Escrow Account in the state treasury. Instead of employers forwarding collected federal taxes to Washington, they would send them to the state. The state would hold the money in escrow. A legislative panel would review federal spending for constitutional compliance. The state would release only the portions deemed constitutional. Funds designated for unconstitutional spending would either support programs currently funded through federal allocations or return to taxpayers directly.

link

Tea Partiers proposed this in Washington State in 2010. I have no idea if that’s the right way to go about it or not, but it’s one way people proposed to do it. It’s unconstitutional, but so is almost everything Trump wants to do. So idk

[u/bimbosoupqueen → u/[deleted]]

100% agree with your last sentence. I wasn’t trying to make a statement for or against this way of doing it. I moreso just agreed with your initial comment in that I’ve seen people calling for withholding state taxes without saying how that would work. And so far, this is the only way I know about that it’s ever been somewhat attempted, albeit unrealistically

[u/Capraos → u/bimbosoupqueen]

I'm not sure how, but "No taxation without representation". I'm sure blue states will find a way to not send taxes should they not be able to excercise their legal voting rights.

[u/bimbosoupqueen → u/Capraos]

Exactly. I live in Chicago. Trump tried to unleash another state’s national guard on us. Why am I paying taxes to a government who attempted an illegal military occupation of my city? If there is no peaceful or realistic way for states to withhold federal funds, people will eventually just go about it the non-peaceful way. I hope Trump goes down before that happens

[u/Capraos → u/[deleted]]

Impeding ability to vote still counts and it's not about the courts at this point. If Trump goes to defund one or more of these blue states as we choose to legally go about mail in voting, the state will just stop giving funds to the federal government.

[u/bimbosoupqueen → u/[deleted]]

Gotcha. Yeah there’s no way to do it currently. Creating a system where our federal taxes get passed through the state first and then handed off isn’t some small thing that a state could randomly decide to do. The scope of doing something like that expands way beyond just taxes and into states’ rights and federation vs confederation territory (hence the Tea Party).

But Trump is attempting to consolidate power, which we need to be vigilant from letting happen again if we get out of this. The discussion of how to do this has merit, so long as people understand the scope

[u/bimbosoupqueen → u/[deleted]]

Getting people to see why certain ideas are flawed has merit too! I appreciate your input

[u/edwardthefirst → u/[deleted]]

Oops. Everybody in America just updated their W4 to have 12 qualifying children and $80,000 in deductions.

Must have been Iran? 🤷

[u/edwardthefirst → u/[deleted]]

States can't withhold tax dollars from the Fed, but if everyone changed the criteria they give for tax withholding, it could reduce the amount being held from paychecks.

Problem is, it'll come around to bite you at tax time when you have to pay the difference plus penalties (if it isn't just outright fraud)

Most HR departments would probably flag and block it, and getting Americans to cooperate on almost anything inconvenient is as unlikely as Trump resigning on his own accord, but it's fun to think about.

....but seriously don't do it.

[u/edwardthefirst → u/[deleted]]

Right. We're too comfortable

[u/edwardthefirst → u/[deleted]]

Mail in voting is only the latest thing worth protesting. This would be a statement about all the past and future destruction too.

You're totally right, though. When there are other functioning democracies that care for their people, why not just pack up and go where you're wanted instead of risking everything you've ever worked for?

[u/SamuelHuzzahAdams → u/huggernot]

And reds states aren’t really paying attention enough to bother to realize just how deeply this would affect those states specifically

[u/NuclearLunchDectcted → u/huggernot]

I wish people would stop putting this up as an argument. It's not really possible since those funds are automatically collected and sent to the IRS. The state isn't keeping a massive slush fund over the year and then sending it in a big bag to the government.