Could Blue States Withhold Federal Taxes?
Or could they secede? Or join Canada?
This morning, I Googled “Could Blue States …” and before I could even type a space and a “W,” Gemini gave me choices:
Apparently, I’m not the first person to ask what Blue states can do about the Trump-backed 2025 House funding bill, which would make staying well much more expensive and allow for the defunding of many federal projects.
The emphasis in the media has been on defunding the Affordable Care Act (ACA) subsidies and Medicaid spending and on the Democrats’ efforts to extend these services. But there’s another part to this bill that may be even more devastating if it passes. This is the part that authorizes a president to withhold funds from previously approved federal projects.
Trump has already done this without authorization. So far, he’s focused mainly on canceling funding in Blue states for clean energy and climate-change projects, as well as for transit improvements like those in New York and Chicago. If the Democrats give in to pressure and vote to pass this funding bill, imagine how much easier it will be for Trump to cancel funding for anything at all that benefits us instead of him.
Trump and the Trumpublicans have already proved they couldn’t care less how many of us who are poor or middle-class get hurt when billionaires get more tax breaks. In fact, Trump himself stated before the shutdown that he’d use it as an excuse to fire many more federal workers who provide services to us.
Given the harm Trump is doing to us all, I think the Democrats may eventually have to give in and vote for the “Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act, 2026.” That’s the name of the bill. Maybe they could demand the name be changed to “Continuing and Discontinuing Appropriations.”
Which brings us back to “Could Blue States?…”
Could Blue states secede?
I say “yes.” The Declaration of Independence also says “yes.”
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. … [W]hen a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.”
The Declaration of Independence is a declaration; it is not law. Still.
Could Blue states join Canada?
, writing on Medium, makes a case for why we should join Canada. Robert Reich, on Substack, asks “How about if Canada annexes Blue America?”
However, the question isn’t whether it would be good for Canada to hitch up the Blue states to its democracy or whether the Blue states should ride the trail on over to a more democratic country. The question is about whether either of these things could happen.
A comment in a Reddit post attempts to answer this question:
“In Texas v. White, the Supreme Court ruled in a majority decision that the United States is ‘an indestructible Union composed of indestructible States.’”
True. But perhaps the Declaration of Independence supersedes even a Supreme Court ruling, particularly an 1869 ruling that had more to do with money than with “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” In any case, maybe states can get away with being as unconcerned about illegalities as Trump was even before SCOTUS gave him immunity from prosecution for illegal official acts.
I think the answer to this question about the Blue states joining Canada may be “Just maybe.”
Can Blue states withhold federal taxes?
This is the question I was asking Google.
Medium writer also writes on The Existentialist Republic. His article “Trump Cut Funding to 16 Dem States. Can States Cut His?” has this to say about those states that pay more to the federal government than they receive from it (aka the “Blue” states):
“The anti-commandeering doctrine, confirmed in Printz v. United States, holds that the federal government cannot force states to administer federal programs. This means States participate in exchange for federal funding. When that funding stops illegally, the basis for cooperation disappears….
“States and cities process billions in federal tax payments from their employees. These payments flow to Washington automatically, but automatic is not mandatory. States could hold these funds until the federal government certifies it has met its own obligations. No constitutional provision requires states to immediately forward federal taxes while waiting months for entitled federal payments….
Every payment [by a Blue state to the federal government] can require comprehensive documentation, multi-level review, and accuracy verification. If processing a federal grant takes 18 months, processing federal tax transfers can take 18 months too.”
This would not be withholding the payments from all taxpayers in these states; it would only delay the payments from state and city employees. Nonetheless, I think this would get Trump’s attention.
He’d not defund the $1 billion of our taxpayer money being spent to retrofit the Boeing jet given to him by Qatar. He’d still take a $2.5 million to $4.5 million golf trip every four or five days. He’d continue to waste millions of dollars on himself. But he’d be mad.
I’m sure he would make another social media post about Democrats being ‘the party of hate, evil, and Satan,” just like the one below, which he made today.
But what else could he do? (Don’t answer that.)
Since most Blue states do pay more in taxes to the federal government than they receive in grants and services, I’m sure folks in a Blue state could ignore social-media posts by the pitiful paragon of hate, evil, and Satan. For 18 months or so, I’m sure they could do quite nicely for their citizens with their own tax money. Meanwhile, Red states would have to delay spending on services the federal government largely pays for.
I don’t know whether withholding tax payments to the federal government would be possible, but delaying payments long enough to get Trump in trouble with Trumpublicans would have to be worthwhile.
Will Blue states be safe?
Hey, are we safe now?
Ⓒ Katharine Valentino 2025
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A human, not an AI text generator, wrote this story. (Get your own No-AI Badge.)
